Lil and Jubilee - June 2

[ax_diamondlil]

Jubilee and Lil talk during the year-end party and make some plans for the summer.

Lil had only just left Brigitte when she spotted Jubes picking her way though the snack table. They hadn't talked for too long and with a mountain of gossip to share, there was no way she was going to pass up this chance. Besides, she'd be heading home soon and there were hugs to be collected.

She slipped over behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, leave some of that for the rest of us, eh?"

"Dude!" Recognizing the voice, Jubilee abandoned her attempt to calculate the maximum amount of junk food you could put on a paper plate without it collapsing and turned towards Lil, grinning. "I'm totally doing a firework show later; I need to pick up a ton of extra calories to fuel it. Or, y'know, that's the story I'm sticking with, because it makes me feel way less guilty about doing the 'a little of everything' thing. What's up?"

Lil couldn't help but smile at that. "Just me just wanting to catch up a bit before I'm shipped back up north. Have to say hi and bye to everyone before it's just me and the polar bears, right?"

Jubilee shuddered; partly for effect, partly because seriously. Polar bears. "You'd think your mom'd wanta just come visit you, y'know? Get away from all the snow and see actual color." She grinned. "They keep saying it's gonna get warm here, but I'm not seeing any sign of it yet. But at least it's not freezing?"

"Eh, it's up above freezing at home - not so bad. Mom's probably breaking out the shorts right now.: She nudged Jubilee with her elbow. "I'll take you up there sometime so that you can see we actually have some sunshine up there in the summer."

"Please, they don't even know what summer is here; I'm pretty sure what passes for summer where you're from is actually the first days of Spring," Jubilee joked back. "But whatever, dude. What're you going to do up there, go snow shoeing? And how long are you staying?" She scooped up a chip-ful of dip and popped it into her mouth, and held out the plate to Lil as an offer.

She grabbed a handful of chips and ignored the dip. "Dunno. Mom will probably want me around until the Fall. She lined up a job waitressing for the summer at the place she works so... yeah. School, work, school again."

"Ugggggh, hard pass. Couldn't you get out of it? You could probably make as much doing your stuff for Shinobi as going back to middle-of-nowhere-ville," Jubilee pointed out. "And, y'know, still be here with all the incredibly super cool people." She grinned and popped another chip into her mouth.

"Sure, except middle-of-nowhere is home, and I sorta miss it. Besides, I got Billy. He'd probably be okay with popping me back down here whenever I need a dose of you guys."

"You're taking Billy with you to Canada? Is he like, doing an exchange student thing or something? Or are you just stuffing him in your carry-on?" she teased.

Lil gave and overdramatic sigh and waved a dismissive hand at Jubilee. "See, up in Canada we have advanced technology - little phones you can carry in your pocket. They take pictures and everything. I'll just give him a call if I need to." The hand went from a wave to an excited flap. "Oh! Jubes, you could visit if you wanted!"

"Me? In omg-frozen-land?" Jubilee gave her a look of feigned horror, then grinned. "Actually, I'd be cool with that. I mean, if your mom wouldn't mind and stuff? Because if she wouldn't want to be invaded, I totally get it."

"Pretty sure she'd be thrilled, 'cause it's not like I ever had friends over before. She'd probably freak at the powers stuff... " Lil frowned. Easy fix - Jubes could just keep her power under wraps, but that didn't work so well for kids. She'd worry about that later. "But yeah, she'd be okay."

Jubilee frowned. "Is your mom like, mutant phobic? Because that's gotta totally suck."

"Naw, not like she hate mutants or anything. Just scared mostly, at least I think so. Like, scared of me getting found out, not of mutants. She's been trying to keep people from finding out about me since I was a baby, so she's sort of paranoid about it." 'Sort of' was probably an understatement, but you had to live with her mom to understand that.

"Yeah, so, maybe you might wanna check with her before you invite me?" Jubilee suggested. "Cuz really? Not all that not-stand-out-y, if you've never noticed."

"I'f I've never noticed, you must not stand out at all, right?" Lil grinned and reached pass Jublee for a bowl full of Cheesies. "But yeah, I'll check first. Man, the way I work I'd have had you up there before I even let mom know I was gonna be there."

"Yeah, and I'd be totally on board with that?" Jubilee admitted. "Except for the part where its a really, really long walk back to the school from Canada? And I'm not best buds with a teleporter. I'm pretty sure Clarice is still annoyed I snuck through one of her portals to begin with."

Lil tilted her head to one side. "Whoa. When did you do that?"

"Didn't I ever tell you that?" No, she hadn't - how had she missed that? "That's how I got here - no special hand engraved invitation for me, nuh uh. I was watching her and Shen and the mall in Beverly Hills, and there was something totally weird about them, right? And being observant as I am, I totally followed them." Jubilee grinned. "Riiiight through Clarice's portal thing. She was maybe a little less than happy about it. Shen was cool, though."

Lil's eye grew wide. "Ya'know? Sometimes I forget just how ballsy and brave you are. That's fucking amazing."

Jubilee took a bow, then straightened up and grinned just a little sheepishly. "Ballsy, sure. But Clarice pointed out I coulda totally splinched myself diving through like that, and I had totally no idea what was on the other side? But hey, YOLO, right?"

"Yup, I can't argue with that, not when I've picked Space Guard as my future career."

"Hey, that's awesome, though! I mean, kinda like being a secret service agent, right? Just, y'know, in space, with aliens." Jubilee's grin widened. "Which totally sounds like the plot of a movie, amIright?"

"Totally. I'm like... Typho, Padme's guard in, um, Attack of the Clones!" Just when she was getting used to the idea herself, here was Jubes getting her all excited again. "I'm gonna be in real-life Star Wars!"

"Right? Except seriously, do a better job guarding, huh? Because Teddy - " Jubilee paused, then grinned. "Hey, he's an alien. Maybe he can give birth to twins, huh? I'm totally going to ask him."

That was a thought Lil didn't even want to entertain. "Oh my God, he'll kill you. Well, not him, but Billy will... or Billy will just die of embarrassment."

"I'm going with dying of embarassment for $200. Gotta do it, now," Jubilee said, nodding decisively.

"No!" Lil grabbed her arm. She was torn between laughing and yelling. "Don't. I mean, do you teast Teddy about that? Is he okay with it?"

"About what, being an alien? Sure. I mean, he is an alien, and it's totally tease-worthy." Jubilee smirked. "I also keep coming up with new obnoxious royalty titles for him. He facepalms a lot, but he seems to be cool with it, y'know?"

Lil let go of Jubilee's arm. "Okay, if he's cool with it. I just want to make sure he knows we think he's one of us, right? The alien shit doesn't matter." Then she glanced over to where Teddy and Billy where standing and smiled. "I call him Prince Dork the Eighth."

"Same thing, just a different way to do it. If he wasn't one of us, would I be giving him shit? I don't think so." Jubilee grinned. "I like the Prince Dork thing, though. I might have to use that one sometime."

"Definitely use it." Yeah, she'd been silly to worry. Jubes might be a little young, but she was smart about this sort of stuff, the kind of friend that could be a rock when things got sketchy, and that was exactly who Teddy needed teasing him right now. "We got to keep him humble, right?"

"Somebody's gotta," Jubilee agreed. "And who could possibly do it better than us?"