Disclaimer: I dun own X Men Evolution (everyone faints in shock) I�m not making any money from this so don�t sue me.

Choices

(Part II)

By

dragonchic




~

�Mr. Summers!� A loud voice suddenly cut through my thoughts. Looking up, I saw my math teacher scowling at me. Crap. Caught daydreaming in class again. She wasn�t going to be happy. But might as well try to act innocent.

�Yes Mrs. Druker?� I said in my cheesiest, perfect teacher�s pet voice. Not surprisingly she didn�t fall for that. �I�d appreciate it if you�d concentrate on the task at hand instead of zoning out.�

�Yes ma�am,� I meekly replied. Ugh, I have to get my mind off of Jean and Rogue. Ok Scott, concentrate. I looked down at the worksheet in front of me and groaned. Differential equations. Fun.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Dumping my books in my room, I wandered out into the hall to see if any other X Men were home. A loud shriek followed by an annoyed grunt told me that Kurt was up to his old tricks with Kitty again. Rolling my eyes, I looked out the window to see Rogue sitting under a tree. Curious, I descended down the stairs, and walked outside. Careful to be as quiet as possible, I snuck up behind Rogue and peeked out from behind the tree.

In Rogue�s hands was a sketchpad. Her slender fingers firmly gripped a pencil as it made soft strokes on the paper. Every now and then she�d reach up and brush a loose strand of white hair out of her eyes. Man that hair�I always wondered how she got that. Was she born with it, or did she dye it? Or maybe it was the result of a traumatic experience. When a person undergoes something that is very shocking or traumatic, their hair can lose pigmentation. I frowned. It wasn�t hard to believe that Rogue had gone through one, if not many traumatic experiences in her lifetime. Maybe that�s why she shut herself out from the rest of the world. I just hope she�ll let me, or at least someone else get close to her. A life of solitude would be miserable.

I leaned over a little to see what Rogue was drawing. What I saw was a typical domestic scene. A father, holding a baby girl with brown hair, with her mother standing next to her and smiling. Looking closer, I saw that the girl�s hair was partially white. Realization set in. Poor Rogue. This was probably wishful thinking on what her childhood could have been. I took a step forward and a twig cracked under my foot. Rogue jumped up, surprised. �Who�s there?� she demanded. Her eyes widened when she saw me, and a reddish tone came to her face. �Uh Scott, ah uh, ah didn�t know it was you. Ah�m sorry.�

I smiled and gestured to her drawing. �That�s very good.�

The intensity of her blush increased. �Thank you,� she stammered. Smiling again, I looked at my watch and realized I was ten minutes late for my study session with Jean. �Oh, I gotta run Rogue, see ya around.� And I was off, running towards the mansion, turning around once to wave.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


�And so Trotsky was Stalin�s chief rival for succession after Lenin in the Russian Revolution.� Holding my head in my hands, I struggled to cram all the information Jean was giving into my head. I had been zoning out in history a few days ago and didn�t hear about the test on the Russian Revolution tomorrow. Fortunately, Jean agreed to help me study. And so I ended up here with at least five huge books spread out in front of me, trying to make sense of Bolsheviks and the Intelligentsia. �Now who ended up leading Russia into communism?� Jean�s question turned up a blank in my head. Ugh, was it Trotsky, Stalin, or umm wasn�t there some guy named Rasputin? �Scott?�

�Uhhh, Rasputin?� I guessed. Jean crossed her arms in front of her and let out an exasperated sigh. �Scott, we�ve been here for over an hour and have made hardly any progress. What�s with you today, you seem like, preoccupied or something.� Defending myself, I argued, �Hey I�ve been concentrating, but you sure haven�t been doing a very good job of making all this easy to understand!� Oops, shouldn�t have said that.

Jean suddenly got an extremely annoyed look on her face. �I�m not the one who was daydreaming in class and didn�t even know about this test! I�m at least trying to help you, but if you don�t want it, fine.� With that as her closing statement, she leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms again. Heh, she�s cute when she�s angry. But even so, I don�t want her mad at me. �I�m sorry Jean, I�ve just got some�stuff that�s been on my mind a lot lately.� Jean raised an eyebrow. �Really? What kind of �stuff�?�

�Wouldn�t you like to know?� I said smugly. Before she could respond, I turned my attention back to the task at hand. �C�mon Jean, we�ve got one more hour before dinner, help me with this Russian Revolution stuff before then.� She relented and went back to explaining Lenin�s succession. I tried to concentrate and was succeeding, until it finally got to be too much and I needed something to distract me. Looking up, I suddenly found myself staring at Jean. Concentrating, I blocked out the red tones, and started to see her true colors. Her hair stayed the same, but I suddenly started to see the pale tone of her skin, and the dazzling green of her eyes. Her clothes started to transform as well, and Jean was standing out from a world of red. I focused my attention on her lips. She never told me what color lip-gloss she wore. Of course I never asked, but that would just be�weird. I liked to think I could see the real color of her lips. A perfect light tone of red that accented her features. Beautiful, I thought. Suddenly Jean looked up, and self-consciously touched her face. �What?� she asked.

Snapping myself out of my reverie, I tried to act as nonchalant as possible. �Something wrong?�

�No, I just thought�� she started as she glanced at her reflection in my glasses, �you were staring at me.� Frantically, I scanned my brain for an explanation as I felt a blush creeping up my face. �Oh umm, I was just er, those earrings! Yeah, I was looking at your new earrings�they�re nice.�

�Thanks�� she said, giving me a quizzical look. Before she could open her mouth and say any more, I quickly piped up, �So Stalin was the one who had an affair with the Czarina, right?�

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Man. What a long day. It was just one thing after another today. I thought it was over when I left school, but that little incident during the study session with Jean proved me wrong. Lying down, I let my mind drift off into the issue of my oh so complicated love life and sighed. I thought this was simple. I was in love with Jean, and would be until the day I died. Puppy love? Maybe, but I wouldn�t know. Then Rogue had to come and turn everything upside down. I was starting to divide my love between the two of them. Jean has always been the object of my affection. And Rogue just seems to need me�to reach out to her, and help her. It�s like a tug of war. I�m in the middle, with Jean on one side, pulling me towards her and the life I�ve always known, and with Rogue on the other side, pulling me towards her and a new, unpredictable life. God! Why did this have to be so hard? Why couldn�t I just know who I was meant to be with. She could fly into a dream, dressed in a long flowing white gown, and reach out, take my hand, and lead me off. But so far, that hasn�t happened. Some days, I find myself dreaming about Rogue and me, sitting on a hill overlooking Bayville just watching the sunset and enjoying the quiet moment with each other. And other days I dreamt about Jean and well�I�ll let that one hang. But there was no clear answer, no one stood out.

Turning onto my side, I thought about my chances with the two. I suspect that Rogue has a little crush on me, which is flattering, but I�m not sure if that�s what�s best for the both of us. And I really have no clue if Jean thinks of me as anything more than a friend. If I went with Rogue, I�d be playing it safe. I liked her, and she liked me. If I chose Jean, there�d still be that uncertainty as to whether I ever really had a chance with her. Turning again, I buried my head in my pillow and soon fell asleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Jean, Rogue, Rogue, Jean. I tossed and turned in my bed as hundreds of images flitted through my mind. Jean and I at a party�Rogue and I rehearsing�Jean flirting with Duncan�Rogue arguing with Kitty�Jean and I at a school dance�Rogue crying in my arms�Jean molding the Professor�s face out of clay�Rogue drawing under the tree�Jean and I studying�ARGH! It was too much. The images zoomed by, and I could barely catch a glimpse of each one. Finally, it got to the point that I was about to scream in my sleep, when suddenly, she came through. The images faded away as I saw her face, smiling at me. She wasn�t wearing a flowing white gown, or beckoning me to come with her. Rather, she was just smiling at me, almost like looking at a photograph. Every detail about her was clear, from the stray strands of hair, to her lips, slightly parted in a shy smile. Slowly opening my eyes, I awakened. I knew what to do. Rising out of bed, I opened my door and made my way out into the hallway.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


I found myself standing in the hall, between two doors. On the left was Jean�s room, on the right, Rogue�s. I just stood there, not able to make a move towards either one. I took a deep breath, trying to dispel my anxiety and doubts. I was ready. This was my decision. I turned towards her door, and lightly knocked. �Come in,� a voice called out. I opened the door and stepped partway inside. �Scott?� she asked, confused. �What are you-�

�Hey,� I said softly as I closed the door behind me. �We need to talk.�



Read Chapter Three

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1