Late Night And Star Wars (Jubilee)

[Noriko Ashida]

The music shot through the otherwise silent mansion. It was late, Noriko knew this. But it was also Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. Hellooo trump card. Although she did edge down the volume just a little bit. All day...she had spend all day watching Star Wars. And now she was almost near the end. But this one was like, her favourite, so it was okay. Wearing green flannel pajama pants and a matching top, and wrapped snugly in a warm blanket, Nori was set.

She kept her eyes fixed on the TV screen across from her, shoveling some popcorn into her mouth. Other people had come and gone during the day, a gaggle of girls showing up for Episode 3 (Hey, Anakin was hot, she couldn't blame them) and a few more coming and going. Nobody had stayed for the entire thing. But now it was late at night, and she was all alone. And that kind of sucked, really. Movie watching was always better with somebody else with you.

But whatever. Battle of Hoth was still kick ass, Han and Leia were STILL OTP, and by God, Darth Vader was still a badass mother fucker. God she loved this movie. She needed to find George Lucas and worship him or something. Yes. Most definitely. And while she was at it, she could find Hayden Christiansen and do a whole other form of worshipping. Holy crap, was she being lustful? Noriko Ashida was NOT lustful! She merely admired and occasionally oggled. Blah, it was only over a person she never had a chance with, so it was no big deal. But the fact that Nori possessed a sex drive was a bit unnerving; she was a feminist, damn it. Girl power all the way. Girl's ruled, boys drooled. Simple as that. But she really should have learned her lesson by now; nothing was ever simple anymore, was it? Not really.

Not that Noriko was a particularly complex person. She had two sides; not necessarily making her two faced. But there was Nori, Nori, then there was Nori lighting your ass up. Most people, no matter how dim, could tell the difference. She was easy to get along with, or so she reasoned with herself. She just treated others as they treated her; and in the case of people like Julian Keller, well, that just didn't go too well. People like Julian, Kitty Pryde, Bobby Drake.. they over shadowed her. They were smart, popular, powerful, gorgeous. Not that she was jealous or anything.

Her eyes trained on the screen, the colorful reflection of the action sequences reflecting on her face as her expression faded into something thoughtful, maybe even a bit forlorn. Noriko knew she belonged at Xavier's; it had become her only home. In a weird philosophical way, she knew the Institute had always been her home, and hopefully, always would be. She would be lost without it, and the people there. Well, a handful of people there. As bad as it might sound, she could certainly live without the majority of the human population, just so long as there were people like Storm, Beast, and Logan around. And Shane. Damn. Shane.

She hadn't thought about her exboyfriend in a long time; and hadn't talked to him in an even longer span of time. In fact, she hadn't really talked to him much at all. Yeah, real encouraging. God, people must think she was a complete bitch. The thought made her sigh, her enthusiasm over the Star Wars marathon ebbing; making her snag the remote and shut off the television, darkness filling the room suddenly. Maybe with a little more effort, a little more practice, a little more courage, she could finally let go of her past and open up a bit? It had taken Nori not a week, a month, or even a few months to come to this conclusion. Try a few years. It was odd, what notions people could come up with when they weren't even trying. She just kind of wished she'd have though of that a few years ago, like when she was getting ready for bed or something, and not trying to wind down, watch Star Wars, and forget she was lonely.

[Jubilation Lee]

The large stone mansion that currently housed the Xavier Academy had stood in that location on the edge of Salem Central for the last 200 years, serving as an estate home, a hiding place for revolutionary soldiers, a stop on the underground railroad, and a boarding school.

As such, the building was crisscrossed with secret tunnels, hidden doors, unmarked hiding places, and secret exits. And in her 8 and a half years at the Institute, Jubilation Lee had made it her top priority to locate every one of them. It wasn’t hard, most of them had been closed down or paved over years ago, and the few that existed had either been expanded into the massive underground complex that exsisted beneath the school or paved and turned into one of the emergency, exits.

But there were still a few that had gone undiscovered, like the one Jubilee was currently crawling through. It was flat and narrow, no more then an above-large gap between the two walls. There were narrow steps leading downward, where a dirt tunnel lead to a small cave like opening in the national park. She had no idea who designed it or why, but for the last 4 years, it had been her secret weapon in her single handed war against the administration of the school.

It wasn’t that Jubilee hated the school. Quite the opposite, there was not a single student on campus who defended and praised the school with the same completely devoted single mindedness as it’s worst, and most troubled student. Jubilee had been at the school so long that she barely remembered any other life, her parents and old home nothing more then a few photographs and fuzzy memories. Xavier and the others were her family, were more vivid and really her family then any of those faceless, nameless relative in China her parents had spoken off.

Scott had been her favorite target for years, becoming temporarily eclipsed by the arrival of Bobby Drake, her ultimate archenemy and sometimes co-conspirator. But while tormenting Bobby the Snowdork was fun, nothing gave her quiet the same thrill as gluing Scott’s socks together or seeing the look on his face when he found that someone had glued fake breasts into his X-men uniform. She’d loved Xavier and Jean, but it was probably Scott’s death that had hit her hardest of all.

Emma Frost was proving to be a wonderful distraction, although it had gotten to the point where even Logan called her behavior a cry for help. Acting out my ass, she wasn’t having any more trouble dealing with what happen then any other student at the school. And she’d see what they said about that tomorrow morning at breakfast.

Tossing her brownpaper bag up onto a small wooden platform jutting out about four feet above her head, she reached up and neatly lifted herself up out of the air onto it. A small ladder of bent nails had been hammered into the wall next to her, their heads red and rusted in the pale light emanating from the swirling green bubbles floating above her head, but she’d learned years ago that simply lifting herself up in a flat press was easier and less likely to give her tetanus. That had been an interesting conversation with Dr. C.

She had her headphones on, the heavy base rhythmus of Cobrastyle blasting through her ears. She swung her head to the music as she carefully released the hatches on the door, her gold hoop earring swinging wildly as she moved. Her pink lens sunglasses were propped up on her head, holding back the few stray bits of hair that had escaped from her pony tail. She wore the same jeans and tee-shirt she’d put on that morning for breakfast, colored up with the addition of her favorite, bright-yellow jacket. It was an amazing jacket, although most of it’s amazingness was factored into the color – bright, day-glow yellow. The type usually seen on roadside workers, only cut into a much more stylish, and trendy jacket.

Usually she’d stop and listen before kicking the door open, to make sure that none of the “adults” were lurking outside. Last thing she needed was someone closing up her escape hatch and punishing her for sneaking off campus. She was grounded after all, although in her defense, Frost’s looked a lot more friendly and cuddly with pink hair. But it was late, and Drake had promised to keep the room clear and guarded in exchange for a few of the contraband goods she was importing from town. Usually she’d say Drake wasn’t to be trusted, since he had a habit of loosing his capacity for independent thinking every time a girl showed up, but having a girlfriend who could (literally) suck your brain out of your body and serve it up for lunch had done wonders for the boy.

Giving the door a good kick, she watched as the ancient oak panel swung open and bounced noisily off the wall opposite. It was located to the right side of the fireplace, barely three feet tall and two feet wide, and flooded as it was now with the light from the television, it appeared to be nothing more then a tiny square hiding place. Drake had done well, and the room was empty except for the single form watching television on the couch – Star Wars, who else would it be?

“Hey Drake.” She called, shoving the three, heavy grocery bags out of the tunnel. Two unexploded fireworks floated out of the tunnel to hang in the air, one a fat lime green blob and the other a thin, snaking ribbon of pink. Reaching out her hand, both shapes dove for it, sucking themselves into her pink palm. "Come get your crap!!”