X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

Blood in the Mud 13.3

It was quiet enough in the dining room that Anna could hear the music softly playing in one of Kurt's headphones as he worked on his algebra homework. It was something subtle with a steady beat, or at least a beat steady enough that Anna found her foot tapping in time to it under the table.

Evan sat next to him and shared the other headphone. Unlike Kurt's face, Evan was screwed up in concentration over something on his computer. When he wasn't tapping at his laptop, he was stroking the patchy stubble at his chin. A soda that he'd taken a single sip from since cracking it at the fridge had, at least by the sound of it, lost all the fight it had left in its carbonation.

The English homework in front of Anna wasn't any more complete than it had been when she pulled it out of the crammed front pocket of her backpack. She managed to fill out her name well enough, but the rest was coming in at a slow trickle, if at all. It didn't help that no matter how many times she read the prompts for the long-form answers, none of the words sunk in an inch. It also may have helped if she had read the book that they were covering.

She heard the heat turn on somewhere in the house, and the vent near her feet pushed the fabric of her jeans against her ankles. The large window behind her lightly popped at the temperature differential. Evan went back to tapping at his keyboard. Tap - tap - tap - tap... tap... tap - tap - tap.

The song on Kurt's headphones momentarily paused before entering a new chorus.

Tap - tap - tap... tap... tap - tap - tap

The song fades into the bridge.

Tap - tap... tap - tap...

"OH MY GOD." Anna lets her head fall to the table hard enough for it to sting.

"Wha?" Kurt shot up in his chair, nearly falling backward with it.

Evan snapped a bony thorn out of his wrist and nearly tackled Kurt on his way to the window. "Sentinals?" He shouted, peering out the large glass pane.

"No, Ev... No Sentinals..." Anna slowly pulled her head off the table. Her homework momentarily stuck to her skin before falling off and fluttering to the ground. She refused to rub the throbbing spot between her eyes as she stood and felt for her keys on her belt loop. "Who wants to go to the mall?"

"The mall?" Kurt looked down at his work. "But, Ann, I've only got three problems left -"

"Then it sounds like it won't be too hard to finish later." Anna felt for her wallet in her back pocket, dumped her backpack from the ground onto the table to get it out of the way of her feet.

"Anna," Evan, apparently at a loss as to what to do with his spiky thorn, simply dropped it on the ground. "We can't just drop everything..."

"Yes, we can, and I am. Coming or not, this party train is leaving in five." Sure enough, with two minutes to spare, the three were piled in Banana with the garage door opening.

Evan pulled his fur-lined hood over his head. "Does this relic even have heat?"

"Good question," Anna toggled the fat nobs in front of her, and the fan spun, but nothing beyond room temp air puttered out. "Nope!"

"Freaking fantastic..."

"It's not that bad, Ev." Kurt snuggled close to him. "Just means we can use each other for warmth!"

Anna adjusted her rear-view mirror. "Everyone buckled in?"

Kurt looked around, "Actually, I don't -"

"Sounds great," Anna dropped her foot on the accelerator and heard the tires squeal beyond her windows. Banana lurched forward and flew down the driveway. The fence gate barely opened in time to allow the car to pass through.