[scene/open log] An impromptu class trip

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

Characters: EVERYONE! Really. Jump right in.
Setting: The mansion.
Content: After talking with Ali and having an emo-regression (as she called it), Jono suddenly realized that he could not leave this situation with his ex-girlfriend unresolved anymore. He has to get this cleared up. So he goes and asks Josh to accompany him to London so that she might be healed, but before Jono can anticipate it, the vacationers begin to grow larger and larger in number...
Status: Open and incomplete. Please do tag in and make threads if you want your character to come along! Also note: Crystal has stated that there will be an appearance by an old enemy of Laura's... Currently, this trip to London is being "planned," and the actual trip will occur after the run-in with Kimura. Just getting the ball rolling!



There was an insistent pounding on Julian’s and Josh’s shared door. When Julian opened it, he was met with Jono’s distressed face.

“Here early for happy hour?” Julian asked. “Nowhere Special is having a pretty good happy hour tonight,” he said. “Nowhere Special” was the name of their favorite pool hall.

“I need to talk to Josh. Can I come in?”

“The homo?”

“Josh. Let me in, Julian.”

Julian barred the door with his body and began to use his telekinesis to block Jono, too. “You mean the homo? What do you want with him? You haven’t blown yourself up today... yet.”

“Joshua, you brat, his name is Josh. Now stop doing that!” Jono’s hands swatted around in the air, useless against Julian’s powers.

“Not until you say ‘homo’!” Julian teased in an annoying sing-song voice. When Jono growled, Julian added generously, “I’ll also accept ‘fag’.”

By now, Josh was standing behind Julian, and said to Jono, “Why don’t you just talk to me like this?”

Jono shrugged, stopped struggling against Julian’s powers, and spoke over Julian’s shoulder. “I feel like such a bloody fool asking you for this, but, I’m just going to say it straight out. My ex-girlfriend Gayle. She... well, you know the gist. She broke her back because of me when my powers first appeared --”

“Yeah, yeah, cry a little more on your handkerchief, Starsmore, we know,” Julian interrupted.

“She refuses to speak to me. But I can’t just let this go unresolved anymore. I think she’s just so afraid of mutants... she thinks we’re all dangerous. She doesn’t know there are mutants like you,” Jono continued on.

“Okay. This is boring. I’m bored now,” Julian announced, and walked back into the room, letting go of his powers.

“Will you come back with me to London, so we could show her that she could be healed?” Jono said to Josh.

“To London with you?!” Josh exclaimed.

“I know, I know it’s such a huge favor to ask, but --”

“AWESOME!” Josh cried. “Dude! Vacation! It’s gonna be awesome! Big Ben! The double-deckers! Those funny cops with those hats! That cool subway with those Mind the Gap things!”

Now Jono was starting to look annoyed. “The tube, you dolt. We call it the tube. And it’s not a vacation. And even if it were, we’d be calling it ‘holiday’.”

Josh was still grinning. “This is going to be awesome, Jono. We’re going on vacation!”

“Going on holiday,” Jono corrected, his British accent becoming snootier by the minute.

“Did you know I’ve never even been out of New York?! Well, except for New Jersey, and that doesn’t really count...” Josh rambled.

Jono looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’m sure the staff wouldn’t mind me saying I needed to go back to the motherland for a week or so...”

==

Logan was watching a game on TV from the kitchen island, and drinking a beer. He didn’t look too pleased by the interruption by the two boys who came crashing into the room.

“Game’s on.” It was common knowledge that Logan hated being interrupted during CFL games, they were so sparsely broadcast. “In and out quickly.”

“That’s what she said...” Josh snickered under his breath, foolishly thinking Logan wouldn’t hear.

“We need staff permission,” Jono said by way of explanation.

“To do what, exactly? Hurry up, commercial’s almost over!”

“I need to take some personal time,” Jono said. “Back home to London. Maybe a week or so. Do you think you can give me the okay for it?”

Logan gave a small grumble and looked away from the TV for a brief moment. “You know, the school might be able to take care of the costs for you if we log it away as a ‘class trip.’ Thing is, you require a staff chaperone for that...”

Jono looked hopefully into Logan’s eyes. “So? Will you... go with us?”

“Kid, I don’t take requests. I go where I wanna go.”

Jono and Josh gave Logan their very best puppy-dog eyes. Finally, Logan caved. “Oh, fine. Move outta the way. You’re blocking the game.”

==

Ali was trailing after Jono in his room as he threw some of his things into a suitcase. “But what am I going to do without you?!” she kept repeating.

“I dunno. Whatever,” Jono said.

“WHATEVER?! I thought we were friends! You don’t just whatever me!” Ali said with a rage that Jono wasn’t sure was mocking or not. He turned to face her.

“I’m going to be gone a week! You won’t even notice me gone!”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll notice all the extra food still lying around.”

“Hah, hah. Extra hah. You’ll see me in a week,” Jono said flatly.

“No, I want to come too!” Suddenly, Ali gasped. “You could find us somewhere to book a gig! Kevin can come and we’ll play a show or two!”

Jono threw up his hands in disgust. “Fine! Whatever. Everyone goes. I get no privacy around here.”

“Hey! We’re all one big happy family here!” Ali said brightly, now that she had her mind set on accompanying her band-mate to England.

“Yep. Exactly like a family, complete with all the squabbling. That’s why, if Julian agrees to go, I’m drawing up a seating chart to put him and Josh on opposite ends of the plane. I’m putting him in with the baggage if that’s what it takes!”

==

“Bobby, you have to come. All the cool kids are doing it,” Josh said to Bobby who was in the middle of his afternoon routine of eating ice cream in the kitchen.

“Excuse me? Where?”

“We’re going to London! And you should come too!” Josh couldn’t contain his excitement.

“You’re going to London? What? Why?” His exclamation was slightly garbled around the mouthful of ice cream he’d just scooped up.

“Oh, Jono just wants me to do some thing,” Josh said, waving a hand dismissively. He seemed far more excited about eating fish and chips and riding on top of a double-decker bus than concerned about Gayle.

Jono was dragging his suitcase down the stairs and called out, “Josh, this is serious!”

“Okay, okay. He wants me to spring a surprise visit on his old girlfriend who he put into a wheelchair for life so that she might forgive him and they can have creepy little mutant babies together afterwards,” Josh told Bobby.

“Not. True,” Jono growled. “Well. Partly true. I’ll tell you the details later,” he said to Bobby.

Bobby raised an eyebrow at Jono. “Are you sure it’s a good idea? I mean, mutie surprise visits don’t always go that well,” he said, thinking of his last impromptu trip to Boston.

Jono gave Bobby a sort of nervous look. “Yeah, I remember you telling me about that... Well, hopefully this will go a little smoother, because I’m hoping she’ll be too distracted going, ‘Why do you have your whole face?!’ and I’ll say, ‘Because! I was healed! And you can be, too!’”

Bobby laughed but his expression immediately turned sour when Jono began to make a move for his ice cream. “This is yours, actually,” Bobby told him. “You ate mine. So I’m finishing off the other carton.”

“Sounds fair to me!” Jono replied. They had a very special arrangement when it came to ice cream.

Comments

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

"What," Jono stammered, "on earth are you doing?"

Julian was sitting in front of an open suitcase, throwing things into it, and looking concerned at the two pairs of sweaters in each of his hands. "How cold is it going to be in London this time of year?" Julian asked.

"You're going too?!" Jono said. "Is everyone invited?"

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

"Sorry, man," Julian shrugged, and threw both sweaters haphazardly into the mound of clothes. "Ali wants me to go. Best friend, moral support and all. I can't say no to Ali. What kind of friend would that make me?"

It was almost humorous how Julian didn't even try to sound sincere or convincing, and how he simply moved onto his next thought, looking mildly contemplative. "Hey, maybe Rogue wants to go? You know what, Starsmore, I'm gonna ask," he decided, and then pointed a finger rather pointedly at his best friend. "You should ask Meg, man."

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

Jono gave him a look. "I thought I was your best friend. Well. I guess I'll have to go change my Facebook, then." He turned to walk away, but then added with a grumble, pointing to one of the sweaters Julian was choosing between, "Those ones."

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

"Did you book anything yet?" Ali said during band practice.

"Not yet," Jono answered. He knew she was referring to the gig she wanted to play once the band was across the pond. "We haven't even booked our tickets yet."

"Tickets, schmickets. Why can't we take the Blackbird?" Ali groaned.

Jono grinned. "Go ask Scott Summers yourself. It'll be fun watching someone else take the 'Official X-Men business ONLY!' speech from him. Besides... don't you want to watch Logan go through the metal detectors at the airport?"

[witheredecay.livejournal.com]

"Playing a gig in London. I like that... in theory," Kevin piped up. "I just can't stand the thought of being cooped up in a plane with so many other people for like... how long is the flight?! God, I hate planes. You have to sit so close to people."

Jono gave him a strange look. "How did you get from Georgia to the school here?"

"A plane."

"...Well, there you go."

"Well, I didn't enjoy it!" Kevin grumbled.

[dazzlerock.livejournal.com]

"If we can't take the Blackbird, can't you ask your multibazillionaire sugar-daddy to lend you one of his G5's or something?"

Jono frowned. "He's not my sugar-daddy, as you call it, and Tony's already done me a huge favour! It'd be greedy to ask for more."

"Tony!" Ali smirked, goading Jono with a grin in Kevin's direction, "they're on a first name basis. That sounds pretty sweet to me, what do you think, Kev?"

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

After Jono had left in his room and Julian had given up on packing anything in a neat and orderly fashion, he jogged down the hall and raped a few times on Rogue's door.

His flashed a grin when her door opened, leaning casually against the door frame. "Hey, sugar."

[canstillkickass.livejournal.com]

"Hey," she replied with a slight nod. "Did you need something?"

[kickasstelekine.livejournal.com]

It was with a little effort on his part that he tempered his grin, his hands gesturing a bit as he explained the situation. "Jono's got this private thing to do in London and he needed to bring the homo. It kind of snowballed into everyone tagging along. You in?"

[pixie-gwynn.livejournal.com]

"Jonothon Starsmore!" Meg finally collared Jono in the hallway, hands on her hips, wings fluttering agitatedly.

"Oh, er, hi. Meg. How are..." Jono started, but trailed off as she bounced impatiently.

"I can come, right?" Meg demanded. "Please say I can come! I've not been home in ages! I mean, it's not really home, but I went on holiday to London a few times and my friend Sian goes to Uni there, it totally counts. Please, Jono, everyone else is going!"

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

Jono was a little bit taken aback, but he couldn't help smiling at her energy. "Sure, you can come. And yes, you are correct, everyone else is going," Jono said, with mock annoyance. "It was supposed to be just Josh and me, but now that everyone else started tagging along, well, it just spiraled into this! Of course you can come along."

[pixie-gwynn.livejournal.com]

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Meg beamed and flung her arms around Jono, squeezing him for a moment before stepping back and grinning up at him. "Sorry we've all sort of taken over your boys' holiday. But we'll have so much fun as one big group, I bet you know all the best places to go."

[pixie-gwynn.livejournal.com]

Meg rocked back and forth on her heels, unsure of whether or not to knock on the door in front of her. She had initially been over the moon at the prospect of a trip almost home but now Meg really needed someone to talk to and her feet had lead her here. She frowned and gingerly knocked on Laura's door.

[trainedweapon.livejournal.com]

It opened instantly, as if Laura had gotten up to open it before Meg even lifted her hand, and she had. She had heard her approaching, heard the upset tittering of her heart and breath, and the way she rocked back and forth on her heels.

"Hello."

[pixie-gwynn.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Hi Laura," Meg was a little startled by her sudden appearance. "Can I come in?

[golden-elixir.livejournal.com]

Josh thought he heard someone on the courts. He jogged around the back fields of the mansion for awhile and then up to the basketball courts, catching Bobby passing the time shooting hoops.

"Hey! So? Have you decided yet?"

[never-too-cold.livejournal.com]

Bobby turned around, not missing a beat as he passed the ball to Josh.

"You know what? Sure. Never been to London. Should be fun, right? Do you know who else is going?"

[golden-elixir.livejournal.com]

"Cool!" Josh said, dribbling the ball before taking a shot. "And at this point - everybody! It was going to be Jono and me - or so he thought - but now everyone wants in. It's going to be so much fun. Can you believe the X-men-in-training get to go on vacation? We never get to leave town!"

[canadamantium.livejournal.com]

Logan hated traveling. He hated packing. He didn't mind the rain, or London, he supposed--he had been worse places in his life, and England did still have soverignty over Canada and all that. Still, he hated flying commercial.

He loathed chaperoning. Even thinking the word made his skin crawl, and here he had volunteered for the job. What on earth was he thinking?

He was grumbling to himself as he trucked into the kitchen, grabbing a beer for himself and downing half in just one gulp.

[scholarlywisdom.livejournal.com]

Hank was still in the process of moving a few of his things into the mansion. At that moment, he was in the kitchen putting away his Slim-Fast snack bars into the cupboards.

"Something wrong, Logan? Other than your usual general irritation at the student body?"

[queendediamonds.livejournal.com]

Emma entered into the kitchen not long after Logan, an unopened bottle of red wine in hand. She nodded in greeting but was quite intent on grabbing a wine glass from one of the higher cabinets and settling down to open the bottle. It was a good Italian vintage and she had every intention of throughly enjoying it.

"Something on your mind, Logan?" she asked without turning as she poured herself a glass.

[dazzlerock.livejournal.com]

Ali found the maker in his lab, bent over some intricate device as per usual. Quietly, first assuring herself that he wouldn't whip out the arc welder or soldering gun unexpectedly, she crept up behind him and peered over his shoulder to try and make sense of the contraption he was working on.

"Forge," she said in his ear, palm on his back so he wouldn't jerk up and smash her in the face, "I'm setting up a gig in London."

"London?" The Maker turned to look at her, awfully close, one super magnified eye blinking at her. Then he turned back to his work. "That's cool. Have fun."

"I was kinda hoping you might...maybe...come with us? We're gonna need an extra set of hands for amps and mics and everything, and...well, you're the best man for the job." She watched him carefully, face screwed up trying to fathom what it was he was doing. "Whaddya say?"

[forgingthings.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like an awfully nice way of saying I should be your roadie!" Forge laughed. "No, thank you, girl, I'm a maker, not a carrier!" Then he began to look thoughtful, and Ali could practically see the gears turning in his head. "Though, I suppose it could be fun to build you some sort of carrying device... like a mini-forklift for the amps..."

[jono-stars.livejournal.com]

Jono burst into his room, and found Warren reading a book. "All right, War," he said. "You've got a choice to make. The whole room to yourself for a week? ...Or... a trip to England with your best mates in the world?" Jono spread out his hands expectantly.

[archangel-iii.livejournal.com]

Warren looked up from his book when Jono entered their room. As he listened to what Jono was saying, his facial expression changed from one of confusion, to one of disbelief, and then something of excitement. Warren thought it fitting to reply in his best imitation of a snobby British accent: "What a spiffing idea, Mr. Starsmore."

After Jono laughed at his comment, Warren got up from his bed and his face broke into a smile. "Oh my god, Jono. England! We're really going to England?!" His wings half spread in his excitement, adding to the feathers that were already on the floor.