5 Things Jubilee Has Learned at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
Title: 5 Things Jubilee Has Learned at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
Fandom: X-Men (movieverse... ish)
Characters: Jubilee, Logan, Remy LeBeau, Ororo Munroe, Kitty Pryde
Rating: G
Wordcount: ~ 1500
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Notes: Written for the fan-flashworks "Five things" challenge.
1) How to properly cook a steak
On Logan's birthday--on the day Logan has arbitrarily chosen as his birthday to fill out forms, anyway--Remy takes Logan and Jubilee out for dinner, to a restaurant where you can cook your own steak. Remy grumbles about it a bit--"Whole point of a restaurant is to have someone else cook y'food"--but Logan's happy.
"Nobody ever believes me when I tell them how rare I like my meat," he says. "How do you like yours, Jubes?"
"I dunno," she says. She doesn't remember the last time she's eaten a steak.
"Well, now, most people like it medium. If you want, I can give you a bite of mine first and see how you like it rare."
"Sure," she says. Logan pulls his huge steak off the grill a few minutes later. He cuts off a bite and hands it to her. "Eew! It's bloody!"
"Yup," Logan says happily. "Sure is."
Jubilee makes a face, but she takes the bite. She's not a coward. "Oh," she says. It's juicy and deliciously steak-y. It doesn't taste like blood, as far as she can tell.
Logan smiles. "Yeah. Well, if you want yours like this, it really only takes a few minutes. Now, you never want to cut it open to see if it's done in the middle. That just lets the juice out. Instead, you want to press down on it and see how springy it is..." He carries on about steak cooking. It's the most she's ever heard him say at once.
Her steak is delicious, even if Logan refuses to let her use A1.
2) How to stack the deck
"Remy, you cheat," she says.
"Everybody cheats. Or they would, if they knew how," he replies. Then he grins at her and says, "See? Tiny mark on the back of this card? Made it with my thumbnail. Means it's an ace, but nobody but me'd think to look for it. Well--nobody but me and you."
"That's... actually pretty smart. But it's still totally cheating."
Remy shrugs. Then he says, "I guess you don't care about winning since you have so much money saved back here," and he pulls a quarter out from behind her ear.
"Yeah, wow, a quarter. I'd better not spend all of that in one place."
"It just don't work as well, pulling a twenty out of somebody's ear," Remy says. "You want paper money, you best learn how the game is played. Now, you watch my hands when I deal."
He deals six times before she realizes that he's giving her cards from the middle of the deck and himself cards from the top.
"Good, cherie, now you try it."
She deals twenty times and says, "This is stupid."
Remy just shrugs. He says, "The trick is to misdirect. When you're dealing, you don't want anybody lookin' at your hands. When you're playing, you'd best keep your eyes square on that dealer's hands."
"People play poker online now, Remy."
"Nah. That ain't real poker. How you gonna read somebody's face in online poker?"
"How you gonna cheat, you mean?"
Remy shrugs. "Look, cher, you wanna go play online poker, suit y'self. If you wanna learn how the game is really played, you give me a call."
Jubilee realizes that Remy's bluffing--it would hurt his feelings if she left now. She's not used to having the power to hurt the feelings of adults. She considers, then deals cards for the twenty-first time. This time, while she deals, she wiggles her eyebrows and says, "So, you from out of town? Do you come here often?"
Remy cracks up laughing. He takes his eyes off Jubilee's hands, and she deals herself all aces.
3) What is that stuff in the fridge
"It's hummus," Ororo explains. "I made it myself. Would you like to try some?"
"What's it made of?" Jubilee asks.
"Chick peas, tahini, and garlic. A lot of garlic."
"Good thing I'm not a vampire, then."
Ororo gives her a gentle smile. "Good thing, indeed." She spreads some hummus on a Triscuit and hands it to Jubilee.
"Oh. It's actually not bad," Jubilee says. It's way better than it looks, and she snags another Triscuit and dips it in the tub of hummus.
"I can show you how to make it, if you'd like."
"Oh. Um, I'm not very good at cooking."
"Well, hummus isn't very hard to make," Ororo says, and she hands her a can opener.
4) How the quadratic formula is supposed to work
After class, Kitty Pryde says, quietly, "Hey Jubilee, if you need help with your homework or whatever, I'm totally happy to help."
Jubilee gives an uneasy smile and says, "Uh, thanks? But, um, I'm good."
Kitty's cheeks are pink and she continues, "It's just that, I saw you cheating off my test today? I mean I'm not going to tell on you or anything, but just, um, I saw it. And, um, usually the teachers here are pretty good about spotting that kind of thing. So you probably shouldn't do it anymore."
Jubilee doesn't take Kitty up on her offer until her exam comes back with a big red 0 and a "See me after class." Mr. Summers makes her meet with Kitty if she wants to get her grade back up. And Jubilee realizes that she does want to get her grade back up. She doesn't want Mr. Summers to think she's dumb or anything.
So she grudgingly settles down with Kitty in the library every afternoon at 4pm. Kitty never once says "I told you so," and Jubilee is both grateful and annoyed at her self-restraint. If the tables were turned, Jubilee's pretty sure she wouldn't be able to be as nice about it as Kitty.
Jubilee blows her bangs up and says, "I just don't like math."
Kitty says, "I know. Nobody likes math. Except me."
"You actually like math>"
Kitty shrugs. "It's like a puzzle, you know?"
"I guess." She stares miserably at her homework and says, "There are just so many numbers."
"I think it's really helpful to look at it step by step," Kitty says. She drags the textbook over to cover up part of the equation. "Just look at this first. -b +/---"
"Which, like, make up your mind, right?"
Kitty laughs. "It's just you have to check for negative and positive b because it gets squared--"
"No, I get it, I just hate having to do it twice for the same problem."
"Oh. Well, you just do. But it shouldn't take as long to set up for the second one, because the discriminant is the same. Anyway, so, first let's just do a positive discriminant." She patiently talks Jubilee through the equation. It does make sense, really, it's just boring. But with Kitty there to keep her mind from wandering too far afield, Jubilee finishes her homework in record time. And when she checks her answers against the back of the textbook, she's right. Well, except for #9. She double-checks her work and figures out where she went wrong, without Kitty even telling her.
She looks up from the book and grins. "Hey, thanks, Kitty. I think I kinda get this stuff."
"No problem."
"Hey, Kitty," Jubilee says, "do you want to play cards?"
5) What it feels like to fit in somewhere
It feels awesome, the sun and water on her skin. To celebrate the end of the school year, Professor Xavier rents out a whole water park. It's cool because some people, like Dr. McCoy and Blink, get weird looks at the pool otherwise. Also, it's cool because there are barely any lines for the slides. Jubilee was about to head down the Black Vortex for the fifth time. It was totally cool, because the whole slide was black plastic and you couldn't see anything until, suddenly, you popped back out into the bright sunlight and artificially blue pool.
She climbs up the ladder, adjusts her sunglasses, and pads off around the park. She spies Logan napping on a lounge chair with a cowboy hat over his face. She's tempted to try some kind of prank, maybe writing her name in sunscreen on his bare chest or something, but she's not sure sound of a sleeper he is. She decides not to risk anything just yet. Jean's next to him, lying on her stomach and reading The American Journal of Human Genetics. She waves as Jubilee walks by. Some of the younger kids are playing on a big jungle gym with water cannons and stuff. Remy and Ororo walk toward her, laughing together. Remy is wearing the brightest-colored swim trunks she has ever seen. Ororo looks like a Victoria's Secret model.
"Hey, petite, you having a good time?" Remy asks.
"Yeah, this is awesome!" she says.
"You lookin' for the other girls?"
"Kinda."
"I saw 'em on the Lazy River awhile ago."
"I believe they are working on their tans," Ororo says.
"Not that you know anything about that, Stormy," Remy says.
Jubilee laughs and says, "Thanks. You lookin' for Logan?"
"Kinda."
"He's asleep over there," she says, pointing.
"Much obliged," Remy says, nodding gravely. "See you around, cherie."
"Later, Remy. Bye, um, Ms. Munroe." Remy winks at her and Ororo gives her a regal nod. Jubilee winds her way around the water park and eventually finds the Lazy River. She sighs. It looks so boring, compared to the Black Vortex and the Stingray. She grabs a big yellow innertube--it matches her new bikini--and wades into the river, grabbing a railing while she waits for her friends to float by.
"Hey! Jubes! There you are!" Dani yells. Jubilee lets go of the railing and floats off with her friends.
"Where have you been?" Kitty says. "We've been looking for you."
"Yeah," says Amara. "We looked all over this Lazy River."
"Guys, the Lazy River is so boring," Jubile protests half-heartedly.
"Guys, shut up, we're about to pass the cute lifeguard again," Dani says.
Jubilee smirks as her friends rearrange their damp hair. But then she sees the lifeguard in question and starts casually primping. As soon as they're past him, they all start giggling.
"Kitty, I dare you to give him your phone number," Dani says.
"No way," Kitty says. "You do it."
"Nuh uh. Jubilee, you do it," Dani says.
Jubilee rolls her eyes. "Uh, I didn't exactly pack a notepad in my bikini. Do you want me to just, like, yell it out the next time we float by?"
The girls crack up laughing, and Jubilee smiles. She happily floats along with them, enjoying the feel of sunshine on her skin and friendly laughter in her ears.
Fandom: X-Men (movieverse... ish)
Characters: Jubilee, Logan, Remy LeBeau, Ororo Munroe, Kitty Pryde
Rating: G
Wordcount: ~ 1500
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Notes: Written for the fan-flashworks "Five things" challenge.
1) How to properly cook a steak
On Logan's birthday--on the day Logan has arbitrarily chosen as his birthday to fill out forms, anyway--Remy takes Logan and Jubilee out for dinner, to a restaurant where you can cook your own steak. Remy grumbles about it a bit--"Whole point of a restaurant is to have someone else cook y'food"--but Logan's happy.
"Nobody ever believes me when I tell them how rare I like my meat," he says. "How do you like yours, Jubes?"
"I dunno," she says. She doesn't remember the last time she's eaten a steak.
"Well, now, most people like it medium. If you want, I can give you a bite of mine first and see how you like it rare."
"Sure," she says. Logan pulls his huge steak off the grill a few minutes later. He cuts off a bite and hands it to her. "Eew! It's bloody!"
"Yup," Logan says happily. "Sure is."
Jubilee makes a face, but she takes the bite. She's not a coward. "Oh," she says. It's juicy and deliciously steak-y. It doesn't taste like blood, as far as she can tell.
Logan smiles. "Yeah. Well, if you want yours like this, it really only takes a few minutes. Now, you never want to cut it open to see if it's done in the middle. That just lets the juice out. Instead, you want to press down on it and see how springy it is..." He carries on about steak cooking. It's the most she's ever heard him say at once.
Her steak is delicious, even if Logan refuses to let her use A1.
2) How to stack the deck
"Remy, you cheat," she says.
"Everybody cheats. Or they would, if they knew how," he replies. Then he grins at her and says, "See? Tiny mark on the back of this card? Made it with my thumbnail. Means it's an ace, but nobody but me'd think to look for it. Well--nobody but me and you."
"That's... actually pretty smart. But it's still totally cheating."
Remy shrugs. Then he says, "I guess you don't care about winning since you have so much money saved back here," and he pulls a quarter out from behind her ear.
"Yeah, wow, a quarter. I'd better not spend all of that in one place."
"It just don't work as well, pulling a twenty out of somebody's ear," Remy says. "You want paper money, you best learn how the game is played. Now, you watch my hands when I deal."
He deals six times before she realizes that he's giving her cards from the middle of the deck and himself cards from the top.
"Good, cherie, now you try it."
She deals twenty times and says, "This is stupid."
Remy just shrugs. He says, "The trick is to misdirect. When you're dealing, you don't want anybody lookin' at your hands. When you're playing, you'd best keep your eyes square on that dealer's hands."
"People play poker online now, Remy."
"Nah. That ain't real poker. How you gonna read somebody's face in online poker?"
"How you gonna cheat, you mean?"
Remy shrugs. "Look, cher, you wanna go play online poker, suit y'self. If you wanna learn how the game is really played, you give me a call."
Jubilee realizes that Remy's bluffing--it would hurt his feelings if she left now. She's not used to having the power to hurt the feelings of adults. She considers, then deals cards for the twenty-first time. This time, while she deals, she wiggles her eyebrows and says, "So, you from out of town? Do you come here often?"
Remy cracks up laughing. He takes his eyes off Jubilee's hands, and she deals herself all aces.
3) What is that stuff in the fridge
"It's hummus," Ororo explains. "I made it myself. Would you like to try some?"
"What's it made of?" Jubilee asks.
"Chick peas, tahini, and garlic. A lot of garlic."
"Good thing I'm not a vampire, then."
Ororo gives her a gentle smile. "Good thing, indeed." She spreads some hummus on a Triscuit and hands it to Jubilee.
"Oh. It's actually not bad," Jubilee says. It's way better than it looks, and she snags another Triscuit and dips it in the tub of hummus.
"I can show you how to make it, if you'd like."
"Oh. Um, I'm not very good at cooking."
"Well, hummus isn't very hard to make," Ororo says, and she hands her a can opener.
4) How the quadratic formula is supposed to work
After class, Kitty Pryde says, quietly, "Hey Jubilee, if you need help with your homework or whatever, I'm totally happy to help."
Jubilee gives an uneasy smile and says, "Uh, thanks? But, um, I'm good."
Kitty's cheeks are pink and she continues, "It's just that, I saw you cheating off my test today? I mean I'm not going to tell on you or anything, but just, um, I saw it. And, um, usually the teachers here are pretty good about spotting that kind of thing. So you probably shouldn't do it anymore."
Jubilee doesn't take Kitty up on her offer until her exam comes back with a big red 0 and a "See me after class." Mr. Summers makes her meet with Kitty if she wants to get her grade back up. And Jubilee realizes that she does want to get her grade back up. She doesn't want Mr. Summers to think she's dumb or anything.
So she grudgingly settles down with Kitty in the library every afternoon at 4pm. Kitty never once says "I told you so," and Jubilee is both grateful and annoyed at her self-restraint. If the tables were turned, Jubilee's pretty sure she wouldn't be able to be as nice about it as Kitty.
Jubilee blows her bangs up and says, "I just don't like math."
Kitty says, "I know. Nobody likes math. Except me."
"You actually like math>"
Kitty shrugs. "It's like a puzzle, you know?"
"I guess." She stares miserably at her homework and says, "There are just so many numbers."
"I think it's really helpful to look at it step by step," Kitty says. She drags the textbook over to cover up part of the equation. "Just look at this first. -b +/---"
"Which, like, make up your mind, right?"
Kitty laughs. "It's just you have to check for negative and positive b because it gets squared--"
"No, I get it, I just hate having to do it twice for the same problem."
"Oh. Well, you just do. But it shouldn't take as long to set up for the second one, because the discriminant is the same. Anyway, so, first let's just do a positive discriminant." She patiently talks Jubilee through the equation. It does make sense, really, it's just boring. But with Kitty there to keep her mind from wandering too far afield, Jubilee finishes her homework in record time. And when she checks her answers against the back of the textbook, she's right. Well, except for #9. She double-checks her work and figures out where she went wrong, without Kitty even telling her.
She looks up from the book and grins. "Hey, thanks, Kitty. I think I kinda get this stuff."
"No problem."
"Hey, Kitty," Jubilee says, "do you want to play cards?"
5) What it feels like to fit in somewhere
It feels awesome, the sun and water on her skin. To celebrate the end of the school year, Professor Xavier rents out a whole water park. It's cool because some people, like Dr. McCoy and Blink, get weird looks at the pool otherwise. Also, it's cool because there are barely any lines for the slides. Jubilee was about to head down the Black Vortex for the fifth time. It was totally cool, because the whole slide was black plastic and you couldn't see anything until, suddenly, you popped back out into the bright sunlight and artificially blue pool.
She climbs up the ladder, adjusts her sunglasses, and pads off around the park. She spies Logan napping on a lounge chair with a cowboy hat over his face. She's tempted to try some kind of prank, maybe writing her name in sunscreen on his bare chest or something, but she's not sure sound of a sleeper he is. She decides not to risk anything just yet. Jean's next to him, lying on her stomach and reading The American Journal of Human Genetics. She waves as Jubilee walks by. Some of the younger kids are playing on a big jungle gym with water cannons and stuff. Remy and Ororo walk toward her, laughing together. Remy is wearing the brightest-colored swim trunks she has ever seen. Ororo looks like a Victoria's Secret model.
"Hey, petite, you having a good time?" Remy asks.
"Yeah, this is awesome!" she says.
"You lookin' for the other girls?"
"Kinda."
"I saw 'em on the Lazy River awhile ago."
"I believe they are working on their tans," Ororo says.
"Not that you know anything about that, Stormy," Remy says.
Jubilee laughs and says, "Thanks. You lookin' for Logan?"
"Kinda."
"He's asleep over there," she says, pointing.
"Much obliged," Remy says, nodding gravely. "See you around, cherie."
"Later, Remy. Bye, um, Ms. Munroe." Remy winks at her and Ororo gives her a regal nod. Jubilee winds her way around the water park and eventually finds the Lazy River. She sighs. It looks so boring, compared to the Black Vortex and the Stingray. She grabs a big yellow innertube--it matches her new bikini--and wades into the river, grabbing a railing while she waits for her friends to float by.
"Hey! Jubes! There you are!" Dani yells. Jubilee lets go of the railing and floats off with her friends.
"Where have you been?" Kitty says. "We've been looking for you."
"Yeah," says Amara. "We looked all over this Lazy River."
"Guys, the Lazy River is so boring," Jubile protests half-heartedly.
"Guys, shut up, we're about to pass the cute lifeguard again," Dani says.
Jubilee smirks as her friends rearrange their damp hair. But then she sees the lifeguard in question and starts casually primping. As soon as they're past him, they all start giggling.
"Kitty, I dare you to give him your phone number," Dani says.
"No way," Kitty says. "You do it."
"Nuh uh. Jubilee, you do it," Dani says.
Jubilee rolls her eyes. "Uh, I didn't exactly pack a notepad in my bikini. Do you want me to just, like, yell it out the next time we float by?"
The girls crack up laughing, and Jubilee smiles. She happily floats along with them, enjoying the feel of sunshine on her skin and friendly laughter in her ears.