Name: Peter
Description: Angelo tries to help Jubilee with her new attitude problem.
Laundry Day
The second the young mutant known as Angelo Espinosa knocked on the door
he knew that it had been a bad idea. "Just what where you on when you
offered to do this Espinosa" He said to himself…or would have if the door had
not opened.
Standing in the doorframe was a very mad looking Jubilee.
"What do you want?" She didn't really ask the question as much as
threaten him to answer.
"Well senorita Jubilee, I have come to ask your assistance in the most
painful task set before me." As Angelo said each word he could almost taste
the charm he was pouring out.
As Jubilee stared at him a small smile swept across her face. Then as
she looked past him to see two large laundry bags tucked away in a corner of
the hallway she couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "Let me guess. Sean
stuck you laundry duty, right?" She managed to say through giggles.
"Nope I volunteered for it thank you very much." Then while pushing his
chest out he added "I saw how much trouble everyone was having with, well,
everything. So me being the Responsible amigo I am I offered to help senior
Cassidy out."
"Yeah right. Whatever." Jubilee snorted. "Hold on a sec and I'll get
you my stuff."
"Wait just a second there chica. You gonna just stand an' watch me get a
hernia luggin' everybody's stuff down to the laundry room?" He asked her.
"Well that was my plan" Jubilee said eyeing Angelo very carefully.
With a sly smile across his lips he said, "Well I don't think so." And
with that he rapped a good thick skin tendril around Jubilee's waist and
pulled her out. " Your gonna help me."
"Angelo Espinosa you put me down right this instant!" She yelled.
Although she might not posses the sonic voice of their teacher and headmaster
Sean Cassidy but at that moment Jubilees scream of defiance where just as
earth shattering. "I'm warning you you gray skinned moron. PUT ME DOWN NOW!"
"Owww. Don't yell so loud Jubicita. Ya wanna make me deaf or
something?" With that he put her gently on the ground.
"If ya wanted my help you could have asked for it ya know." She glared
at him as she said that but was surprised that she snapped at him so.
Jubilee had known that she had been down in the dumps for a while now. She
also knew that she was taking it out on everybody else. She looked at the
hurt Skin and felt sorry for him. So she picked up one of the bags and
through a grunt of effort said "You gonna help me or what?"
Once again there was a smile on Skins face. He picked up the other bag
and went to hold open the door for Jubilee. He watched as she struggled to
lift the bag and get it to the door and nearly burst into a fit of hysterics
as she almost tripped over herself getting it to him.
"Ya think that's funny huh?" She said as regained her balance. "I'll
show ya funny" Then she blasted him with a tiny playful pyrotechnic blast
aimed right for Angelo's ass. He jumped four feet in the air and landed on
his already hurt backside. He would have been mad except for the fact that
when he looked up he saw something that no one had seen in a long time.
Jubilee was laughing. Not just a small giggle but a full force, all out,
split your side's laughter. So he did the only thing he could do.
"So that's your idea of funny, eh Lee?" He said teasingly.
Trying to contain herself she said, "You should have seen yourself Ange!
You jumped then you fell and the clothes!" At this she fell
on the floor and went into an almost unstoppable fit of laughter.
After picking a pair of boxers off his head he said "Yeah well…" But he
couldn't think of anything to say. He merely sat there and watched as
Jubilee calmed down and wiped the tears from her eyes she got from laughing
to hard. He started to pick back up the clothing that was now all over the
floor and put it into the bag again. "Since this is all your fault you could
help ya know."
"Yep. I could help but then I would miss all the fun of watching you
pick up all those clothe." She barley got the last word out before
surrendering to another fit of giggles.
Angelo just laughed to himself and remembered why he had asked for this
duty today. He had seen how depressed Jubilee had been. No one really knew
why she was so down in the dumps but he felt that he should try to help.
Everyone had there own ideas but Angelo knew what it was. Everett. Everyone
knows that she has a thing for him, all of them except Everett of course.
For some reason Everett had been hanging with Monet of all people and you
could tell there was some serous flirting on both there parts.
"Yo Espinosa! Ya in there?" Cried Jubilee.
"Si si. What is it? Did I drop another shirt or something?" Angelo
asked a bit shaky after being interrupted form his thoughts.
"Nope. Ya just spaced out on me is all." Jubilee was getting into her
usual happy/hyper mood again. She had to admit that it felt good. She had
spent way to long brooding over her losses. Not that she really thought that
anyone really knew what was bothering her. Yeah it had to do with the whole
Everett and Monet thing but it was more then that. She looked over and saw
Angelo having a hard time with the machines so she went to go help him.
"Step aside before ya shrink one of Paige's sweaters. Do you remember what
she did to you the last time you ruined one of them?"
"How could I forget! She chased me clear across the campus and wouldn't
speak to me for a week." Skin laughed as he remembered the all to clear
memory.
"And you actually got on your hands and knees to ask for forgiveness." At
this Jubilee howled with laughter.
"Hey! She told me she wouldn't tell anyone about that." At this Jubilee
only laughed more.
"Don't get too mad at her. I forced it out of her." Jubilee finally got
control of her self and added the fabric softener to the machines.
"Alright Lee. Its time to talk." Angelo said suddenly very serious.
"Talk about what?" Jubilee asked finding herself worrying about what her
friend was going to say next. She was happy that she had gone all day with
out being asked what was wrong with her. She took one look at Angelo and
knew that she wasn't going to get away.
Angelo took a deep breath and just asked her hat he had planed on asking
her the whole time he was with her. "Alright chica. All of us have been
noticing your mucho mal mood that you've been in lately."
"Yeah well its my bad mood and I'll have it if I want" Jubilee said
through a pout.
"Hey that's fine with me but its only fair to know why you're in this bad
mood. So I've decided that your not leaving her till you tell me what's
going on." As he said the last part he braced himself for pain. As he
figured it, anyone who was partially raised by a big bad hombre like
Wolverine was bound to be violent, especially when cornered. So he prepared
himself for a punch, a kick, a pyrotechnic blast straight to the face,
anything! But what he got was something he could not have prepared himself
for. Jubilee was…crying? "Ah Jubes. I…I didn't mean to upset you or
nothing."
"No its not you" She said while wiping her nose. She looked down
at her feet. For some reason she just couldn't bring herself to look at
Angelo right now.
"Then what is it Jubes. We all want to help but we don't know how if we
don't know what's going on. Comprendia?" Angelo moved towards Jubilee and
put a hand on her shoulder. "So tell me. What is it that's bothering you?"
Jubilee looked up at the young mans face and everything just came out.
"No one knows how much I hurt by what had happened between me and Everett and
how much I just wanted to curl up and die whenever I see him and Monet
together. But a lot of it is I just feel so useless and this just proves it.
I couldn't hold on to Everett and I can't do anything to get him back and
what about the team! Jono can level a mountain, Monet can lift one, Paige
can turn into just about anything, and Everett…Everett can do anything with
his powers. Me? I can shoot fireworks and get in the way."
After listening to Jubilee, Angelo just smiled and tried to hold back his
laughter but holding back only made it more audible to Jubilee. "Your think
you're the useless one on the team? Dios mio! I got at lest 6 feet of extra
skin that I am just getting under control and you think that you're the weak
link of the team!"
Jubilee couldn't believe herself. She had just spilled her guts to
Angelo and now he was laughing? 'The nerve of him!' She thought and slapped
him with all her force before started out the door.
"Wait chica! I didn't mean it like that." He ran up to Jubilee who was
almost out the door.
"What do you want now?" She secretly prided herself on how much she
sounded like Emma in her old days.
"Ummmm…well I…O.K. look. What I said before, it wasn't meant to sound
like it did. I was only trying to point out that you're not as useless as
you think. Hey out of all of us you the only one who can say your posse used
to be the X-MEN." He said every word holding his cheek. She had slapped him
very hard you know.
Jubilee tried to looked at him hard but she could feel her stare start to
lighten. She just couldn't stay mad at him for long. After all he was just
trying to help. "Yeah well I am the coolest out of all you bozos." Adding a
playful punch to his arm.
"Only by association Jubicita." He smiled at her, turned her around and
the two of them started back to the laundry room. "Ya know that all you have
to do is ask and you got an ear to talk to, right Lee?"
"Yeah I know. Its just this whole thing with Everett is really getting
to me. I really care for him and I thought he did to…" Her voice trailed off
at the end as Angelo did something neither of them expected him to do. He
gave Jubilee one of the biggest hugs she ever got.
"Um…that was weird. What was that all about?" Asked Jubilee after the
broke there awkward embrace.
A little taken back himself by what he did he tried his best to recover.
"You looked liked you needed a hug. You know me always helping out beautiful
chicas in pain and heart ach" He said trying to look as impressive as he
could in old ratty sweats.
"PUH-LEEZE Espinosa!" She said pushing him away. "If you had half as
much charm as you thought you did this world would be a very dangerous place."
"If this is what you call a 'Thank You' remind me to never do this
again." He said jokingly. Smiling he thought to himself that she was
starting to look like she was in a better mood and hoped he had something to
do with it.
"Really Ange. Thanks. I know I haven't been the best person to be
around lately but at lest…you've…tried…Eep."
"What? What is it?" Then Angelo just looked behind him to where Jubilee
was staring and pointing at and what he found was a very angry Paige holding
a very tiny sweater.
"Ah'm a gonna kill you Espinosa!" She cried letting her southern twang
come out through her anger.
"I think we forgot about the laundry." She whispered to Angelo as Paige
slowly made her way to the two of them.
"Si" He whispered back.
"If you run now I'll try to hold her off" She turned to tell Angelo but
he had already made his way out the door and was running at a good clip
towards the exit.
"Get back here ya dirty rotten little…" Cried Paige as she ran after him.
At this Jubilee fell on the floor laughing. "Ow" She cried as her but
hit the floor hard. But she didn't let that stop her from laughing. She was
doing at lot of this lately. It felt good to though.
