Prologue
“Ginny, would you
stop fussing? Everything’s going to be fine, my family’s gonna love you, you’ll
see,” Jubilee tried to reassure her suddenly anxious girlfriend. “Man,
Jeannie’s gonna go bonkers over you. You’re exactly the type of girl she
likes.”
“I really don’t know
about this...have you even told them...about me at all?”
“Darlin’, I don’t
think most of them even know I walk on the Queer side of the street. I told
Wolvie about you, and he’s really the only one that matters to me. He said he’d
make sure he was in house for the visit back home. He’d do that anyway, but
he’d make extra sure so he could meet you. Wants to be sure you’re taking care
of his baby girl,” Jubilee said with an expressive roll of her eyes.
“I think I’m going to
be sick,” Ginny said faintly, her freckles suddenly standing out like chocolate
powder on the foam of a cappuccino. “I don’t think I can do this, can we go
back into New York and stay at a hotel instead?”
“Dude! I want to see
my *family*! I’ve already been shown off to yours.” Jubilee giggled suddenly.
“I think me and the twins just about drove your mom mad.”
“I still can’t
believe you, sometimes,” Ginny murmured, smiling and leaning forward to kiss
the lithe Asian girl sitting beside her in the backseat of a cab en route to
Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Children. It was a far cry from the world she
came from, magic and enchantment and spells. She was being lifted from the
magical into the scientific, where superhuman powers were a result of
evolution, or a lab experiment.
“Hey, eyes front!”
Jubilee snapped at the driver. “Don’t worry about us; watch the damn road!
Jackass,” she muttered at the end, taking Ginny’s hand in hers. “It’ll be fine,
Cin, I promise.”
“I’m going to throw up,” Ginny moaned softly, and let Jubilee pull her close, hiding her face into the trademark yellow coat and smelling the other girl’s perfume. Vanilla musk, warm and comforting. Sensuous, even. Jubilee stroked her fingers through the coppery strands of Ginny’s hair and leant her head against the top of the fiery mop.
“It’ll be alright, I
promise. It’ll be fine.” She placed a kiss against Ginny’s forehead and held
her tight, running her hands soothingly down the British girl’s back. “They’re
nice people.”
‘I hope so, oh God, I
hope so,’ Ginny thought uneasily to herself as she let Jubilee comfort her.
‘Because it’ll just *kill* you if they aren’t ok with this, Sparkler. And you
know it will. But here we go, charging into the fray with a smile on your lips
and me tagging along behind again just to make sure you don’t get hurt.’