Scott Summers raised the can of soda to his lips and took a long sip. Seated across the cafeteria table from him was Kitty Pryde. She was preoccupied with stuffing her face full of salad and hardly looked up or talked for the entire lunch period. Rogue, sitting next to her, was very pleased of this fact as she read one of H.P. Lovecraft's horror novels. Around them the cafeteria was full of noise and movement as students of Bayville High danced in a social ballet, moving from table to table and class to class. Scott spotted Jean walking away from the cafeteria line and began to raise his hand to call her over. He stopped when he saw Duncan walk next to her and lead her to another table. Scott's half-raised hand fell limp and he turned with a scowl back to his soda. Rogue peered over the pages of her horror book and saw Scott's depressed face. She knew all too well what he must have been feeling like. She pulled a black bookmark with a red tassel from her backpack and placed it between the pages. Shutting the book and placing it on the table in front of her, she cleared her voice to speak with Scott.
"Yah know, Scott, Jean's not tha only girl at school you can ask tah Friday's dance," she said, trying to be as suggestive as possible without it being obvious. Scott just stared at the rim of his soda can, his red sunglass-covered eyes staring back at him in the liquid. He let out a low sigh.
"Maybe. . ." he said, "but she's the only one for me." Rogue's expression of hope turned into a frown. She looked sideways to where Jean was sitting, talking and laughing with Duncan. Rogue practically leapt up from her seat and grabbed her empty water bottle that had been in front of her.
"Ah'm finished. See yah later," she said half-heartedly. Rogue tossed the bottle at the trash can but missed and didn't bother to even glance back. Scott didn't notice and Kitty was now not only stuffing lettuce into her mouth but also trying to write in a notebook. She dripped low-fat ranch dressing onto her pages and continued writing and eating. Her pencil stopped suddenly and, not looking up, she asked Scott a question.
"Hey, Scott, what's a thesis? How many of those do I need in an essay?" she asked. Scott never raised his head.
"Just one. . ." he said, not really talking about her paper at all. "Just one for me."
The hour bell sounded like a death chime for Scott. It was already Thursday and he hadn't been able to ask Jean to the next night's dance. Not that it was anything special, but he wanted to spend more time with her anyway. Duncan must have already asked her and he had missed his chance. Scott's mind was lost in thought as he crossed the school's courtyard. He had tuned out all his senses and replaced them with his thoughts. He walked under a large oak tree just as a gust of wind kicked up. Earlier in the school year he and Jean had climbed that very tree and sat on the limb that he now stood under. As he looked up at it his memories began to swim around in the sea of his mind and he became lost in thought. The tree was cracked all the way through, the wood rotted and decayed. Scott didn't know it, but he and Jean had come very close to breaking the limb off all the times they had sat up in it. Now, as Scott's mind wandered, a gust of wind picked up and hit the tree branch hard. With a loud crack it split and tumbled through the air straight down onto his head. Scott was deeply engrossed in a memory of he and Jean just about to kiss. . .he reenacted out his part and stuck his lips out. But he didn't kiss Jean, he kissed a huge falling mass of old wood. The branch hit him square in the head and shattered his ruby sunglasses as it knocked him on the ground. Scott was snapped back to reality but kept his eyes shut. He dared not open them while at the school. The branch had cut a gash into his forehead and he could feel blood flowing down his face. His head was alive with pain as he felt the soft grass for his sunglasses. He roamed without sight for a full two minutes before panic began to set in. He grasped a broken shard of glass and felt it. It was a piece of his glasses. His mind began to panic now. Somehow he had to find the other X-Men and get of the school campus, lest he reveal his powers and possibly hurt an innocent student. He stumbled to his feet and stood still. He couldn't tell if he was standing precariously over the edge of a cliff or about to step into a pit trap full of crocodiles. He lifted his foot and took a step, stepping on a round piece of the branch. As he shifted his weight downward the branch rolled out from underneath him, sending him flying in the air. He landed with a hard thud on his tail bone. Scott winced in pain and struggled to his feet again. He remembered his visor and fished around in his pocket for it. His hands came up empty and he remembered what he had done with it. He had given that blasted visor to Kurt because the little elf had forgotten his chemistry goggles that day. Kurt had to still have them, but Scott had no way of finding any of the X-Men. He was trapped and blind. He tried his best to wipe the blood off of his face so no one would notice. Scott lifted his foot and took another step forward, this time crouching low to the ground so he could feel for obstacles. Looking like an animal searching for food in the grass, he began to travel forward.
Rogue clutched her books tightly to her chest as she walked through the school's courtyard. She was so angry she just wanted to punch her fist into a wall, a tree trunk, something that would get the pain out of her heart and into something else. She stormed past other students and walked into a wooded area where she spotted a nice, big oak. She dropped her backpack and stuffed her books inside before standing tall and cracking her knuckles. She pulled her fist back to punch but suddenly stopped. She caught a glimpse of something red and shiny in the grass. She stooped to pick it up and recognized it as a piece of Scott's sunglasses. She also saw the branch that had fallen onto him. Her eyes grew wide with terror.
"Oh no," she said, "Ah've got tah find Scott." She grabbed her backpack and set out to find him. Without his glasses he was a safety hazard to everyone at the school. Blind and helpless, he would have to open his eyes sometime. And when that happened. . .
Scott was against the wall of the school now. It had taken him nearly twenty minutes just to get this far and he still had no idea where he was. He tried to look as inconspicuous as possible to the other students as they walked past him toward their other classes. He sank to the ground and rested his head on his knees to appear asleep. He decided to use his ears now as his primary sense. He tried to fine tune so as to pick up minute details about everything around but him was unsuccessful. He was still blind and his hearing couldn't help him any. A bell rang and he could hardly tell from which direction it came. He was late for his next class but that was the least of his worries. As he felt along the ground he touched a soda bottle. By its shape he recognized it as a Mountain Dew Code Red, but more importantly he remembered that Code Red was in a red bottle. He pressed the soda bottle against his eyes and slowly opened them. He could see, but just barely. The shape of the bottle distorted his vision like a circus funny mirror. Students began to walk past him and give him strange looks. Who was this senior so involved in what was on a soda bottle? Scott turned around and saw a distorted blob with reddish-auburn hair and white bangs approach him. Rogue put her arm around him and held him up.
"Shhh," she said, "Ah've got yah." Rogue led him forward and held the bottle in front of his eyes. She didn't have anymore classes for the day and she knew Kurt didn't either. And that little elf was bound to show up sooner or later. Rogue led Scott along the school grounds until she came to the main foyer where Kurt stood talking with Kitty. She propped Scott up against a wall and whispered loudly to Kurt.
"Psssst! Kurt! Kurt, come here!" she said, just loud enough so that his elven ears could hear it. He turned around and saw her, his face shaping into a wide grin. "Rogue! Zhere you are, I've been looking all over for you. Did you get done vith your biology test okay?" he said as he walked toward her and Scott. She appeared a little annoyed with Kurt.
"Kurt!" she whispered loudly, "Scott's glasses are broken and his visor isn't on him. Do yah know where it is?" Kurt nodded and pulled them out of pocket. They were coated with a yellow and white sulphur powder.
"Oops! I must have forgotten to vipe them off!" He scrubbed the visor with his shirt and handed it to Rogue. She in turn placed them over Scott's eyes. Scott slowly opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. He put his hand on Rogue's shoulder and smiled at her.
"Thanks, Rogue. I was scared there for a minute," he said. Rogue smiled back and stared into his eyes. Scott coughed to straighten his voice.
"There's something I need to ask someone now," he said. Rogue's eyes sparkled up at him.
"Yeah?" she asked, knowing in her heart that she wanted him to ask her to the dance. She wanted to hear his words and wanted to dance with him so bad. She knew he had to care for her somewhere in his heart. She waited for what he had to say and was shocked when he looked away and left her.
"Jean! Wait up! I wanted to ask you about Friday's dance. . ." his words trailed in the distance as he ran after Jean. Rogue was left in shock, her mouth agape and her eyes full of disappointment and a hint of rage. She closed her eyes and turned quickly away from where Scott was now talking with Jean. Rogue's hair flared about her head as she walked quickly away.
"In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king," she mumbled as she walked away. Kurt and Kitty just scratched their heads.
Aster Anucarr