Summertime, Summertime
Summer 1987. She could think of many memorable moments in her life, but the summer of 1987 was special. It was a good summer, the best summer of her life. It was the summer that everything changed for her. It was the summer Ororo met Logan.
She was twelve and had just completed her first year of Junior high school. She was going to be a 7th grader next year. That meant she was no longer bottom man on the totem pole, and she was finally going to be a teenager in the coming weeks. That made her practically an adult, and she did not intend to let her parents forget that.
They still treated her like a baby instead of the mature minded woman she was becoming. Mature minded, she’d read that in Seventeen magazine and thought it sounded like exactly the kind of girl she wanted to be. Her mother had rolled her eyes when she told her that she was “mature minded,” making that weird noise in her throat that Ororo knew all too well. It said, “She cannot be serious.”
But what did her mother know about being a mature minded woman, anyway? When her mother was her age, she still had to be inside the house before dark, and her mother’s parents made her wear dresses to school everyday, even if it wasn’t a special occasion. To 12-year-old Ororo that screamed Stone Age. Girls in the 80’s were more adult than the girls were in her mother’s day. They had more liberties, more ambition. Her mother just had to get with the program.
“If you’re so mature minded, why are you and Jean still hopping around in the sprinklers like… like… 6th graders?” her mother asked her with false shock in her voice.
Her mother had a point. Playing in the sprinklers was so 6th grade, but she couldn’t let her mother know that she’d gotten the best of her. She rolled her eyes letting out an exaggerated huff. “Mo-om. Girls in the 80’s just wanna have fun. We’re not so serious like you were when you were our age. I mean, you were already thinking about marriage and babies when you were my age. Girls in the 80’s are much more modern.”
Her mother laughed loudly, swatting her on the butt. “Just be home in time for dinner, Ms. Liberated. I don’t know how we old timers can compete with you mature minded girls of the 80’s.”
“I’m serious!” she said slightly aggravated. How did her mom expect to understand her, if she wouldn’t even take her seriously? Her mom still treated her like a stupid kid.
She was going to Jean’s house to celebrate the first week of summer, and she couldn’t think of a more fitting way to bring in the summer than by jumping through the sprinklers. Moms just didn’t get it. Jean sauntered out of her house clad in a flowered two-piece that she bought the week before. Ororo was still wearing her white one-piece from last summer. She wouldn’t be caught dead in a bikini until she got boobs. And that was that.
The two girls forgot all about maturity and being modern women, as they held hands, spinning in the grass while the water drenched them. Finally, dizzy from their frenzied spinning, they tumbled to the grass, still laughing, as droplets of water continued to fall on their bodies. Ororo lay on the grass her arm linked with Jean’s. Between their laughter, they tried to catch their breath.
“This is going to be the best summer ever.” Jean said, pulling in a deep breath, enjoying the fresh smell of summer. Ororo just sighed contently in agreement and closed her eyes.
She loved the way the summer sun felt on her skin. She felt as if it were melting the last remnants of winter off her bones, commanding her to be happy and joyful. She saw sunspots behind her eyelids, and welcomed the summer sun’s rays. Then, the brightness was no longer there. She thought a cloud might be passing over the sun. She opened her eyes slowly after the “cloud” didn’t move.
She saw Scott, Bishop, and some boy she didn’t know standing in a half-circle around their heads, looking down at them. Jean was still happily oblivious with her eyes clenched close tightly, and Ororo elbowed her hard. Ororo could already feel the awkwardness starting to set in. She didn’t know why but this was becoming a problem. Why should she feel awkward around Scott or Bishop? She’d been friends with them forever.
“Hey, what did you do“” Jean stopped short when she snapped her eyes open angrily, but her look of anger turned to one of surprised when she saw the boys. Ororo and Jean scrambled to stand up.
Jean hugged herself, covering her chest with her arms. Jean had adopted a habit of covering her budding chest. She was somewhat embarrassed by them. She complained that her breasts were still too small. Jean wanted breasts the size of watermelons. Ororo was somewhat envious of the fact that her best friend even had breast while she still looked like a flat chest boy. Having breasts, even small ones had to count for something. Right?
“Hello, Scott,” Jean said in a breathy way. Ororo rolled her eyes Jean’s way. That was another thing she had adopted. She was trying to model her voice after those glamorous actresses they saw at the movies. She said it was sexy. Ororo thought it just sounded like she was running out of air. If she were a boy, she would not like that.
“Hey,” he said, seemingly not affected by her “sexy” new voice. “Bishop and I were just showing the new guy around.” He motioned at the nameless boy with his thumb. “This is James. He moved here from here Canada.” Scott said, stressing the word Canada, as if Canada was a million miles away.
“Logan. The only person who calls me James is my old man.” The boy said gruffly, frowning up at Scott.
“This is Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe.” Scott said, pointing to each girl, ignoring the new boy. Ororo peered at him from beneath her wet bangs, brushing them away from her eyes timidly. She’d been trying to let them grow out. She had foolishly let her mother talk her into getting her hair cut a couple of months before. Now, she was constantly brushing her stray bangs out of her face.
“Hello,” she said softly, with a hint of shyness. Boys were steadily becoming an unsolved mystery to her. She hadn’t really thought much of them until recently. She could remember when she thought all boys were gross; now they weren’t so bad.
“Hey,” he muttered a greeting her way. His eyes swept over her in that way only a boy could do, and she felt her face warm a little.
“They’re attached at the hip, dude. You will never see one without the other.” Bishop said with a smile. “Ororo isn’t so bad, though. She likes to play football and stuff. The only thing Jean knows how to do is be pretty.”
“Haha, Bishop.” Jean said dryly. “That was so funny I forgot to laugh.”
“We call them the wonder twins.” Scott added chuckling.
Bishop and Scott then made a big show of prancing around pretending to be Jean and Ororo while they chanted, “Wonder twins power activate!” Jean giggled, but Ororo didn’t find it too humorous. Neither did Logan who sort of turned his lip up at the boys. Ororo studied the new boy out of the corner of her eye while he was distracted.
She guessed he was around thirteen or fourteen. He wasn’t tall and gangly like Scott, who looked like a rail with arms. He stood about a head shorter than Scott, but he already had muscles forming. He had dark, unruly locks that he obviously didn’t give a damn about. His mouth was turned up in an arrogant smirk, and he seemed like the type of boy she had heard Jean’s older sister talk about to her friends. The ones who like to touch girls where they shouldn’t.
Ororo felt funny when she thought about Logan putting his hands down her pants. She would never let a guy put his hands down her pants. God, boys were so gross… somewhat.
After a few minutes, Scott and Bishop finally composed themselves. Jean was still laughing like a moron, stroking Scott’s arm. Ororo decided that there was one thing that could be said about the presence of boys”they made some girls stupid. She vowed to herself then and there that she would never act so lame because of a boy.
Logan turned toward her suddenly, focusing his eyes on her hair. Then, he looked her straight in the eyes. “Does the carpet match the curtains?” he asked her.
Scott and Bishop snickered, elbowing each other. Ororo felt her face warm in righteous anger. She stood there unsure of what to say. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but she wasn’t going to tell him that she didn’t get the question. She didn’t want to look stupid. She knew it had to be something offensive from the way Bishop and Scott were laughing at her.
She crossed her thin arms and rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not going to answer that,” she said defiantly, rolling her neck, feeling self-satisfied with the way she handled the situation. He shrugged at her obviously not bothered by her comeback. He turned his attention to Jean who was busy trying to engage Scott in conversation. Ororo was used to Jean getting all the attention from guys. Not that she cared, anyway. She didn’t want any rude boys to like her. So there.
“How’s my girl?” Bishop said, throwing an arm around Ororo’s shoulder.
“You wish,” she said, suppressing a giggle. Truth was, she did have a little crush on Bishop, but she hadn’t told anyone”not even Jean. She hadn’t been too obvious about the feelings she had when he was around. She didn’t want to look stupid like Jean sometimes did around Scott. No way.
“Now, is that any way to treat your boyfriend?” he joked, making kissy faces at her. Ororo pushed Bishop away from her, sticking her finger in her open and mouth and making gagging noise.
“Don’t make me barf. You’re not my boyfriend!” she protested, but silently, she thought about how cool she would look if she wore his football jersey and how all the girls would be envious because she was Bishop’s girl.
They all chatted idly for a few more minutes, and then Scott said they had to get going. Ororo and Jean watched the boys retreating backs, and Ororo noticed that Logan didn’t stumble along gawkily like Bishop and Scott did. He sauntered with a swagger that seemed much too mature for a boy his age.
They lay on the grass again after the boys had disappeared from view. Ororo lay on her back looking at the sky again. She loved gazing at the sky. She could stare it for hours and feel nothing but peace. Jean lay on her stomach, picking at the grass. “Logan was kind of cute.” Jean said.
“Yeah, if you like rude boys.” Ororo said, trying to sound indifferent. She was still trying to figure out the whole “curtain” and “carpet” question. She wondered if Jean knew what it meant. She was too ashamed to ask because she didn’t want to look stupid.
“Would you let him stick his tongue in your mouth?” Jean asked.
“No! That’s how you get pregnant, and I’m too young to have a baby.” Ororo said. She tried to imagine herself with a screaming baby, and she cringed. Still, the thought of Logan putting his tongue in her mouth made her tingle.
“That’s not true. You can only get pregnant from letting a boy put his tongue in your mouth if you have your period. And you haven’t had your period… have you?”
Ororo sucked air through her teeth. “If I had, you would be the first person to know.”
“Same here. When I have mine, you’re going to be the first person I tell. I won’t even tell my mother until I tell you.” Jean promised. “Do you think Scott’s cute?”
Ororo thought about Scott for a moment. He’d gotten really tall. At the beginning of the school year, he’d only been a little taller than them. Now, both girls only reached his chest. He was sort of cute in a way she supposed. He could be sort of annoying. He thought he had to be in charge of everything, and, sometimes, he was too serious. He was older than them by a year; this fall he was going to be an 8th grader. And he never let them forget that.
“He’s alright. I guess. Why? You like him?” Ororo asked. She already knew the answer to that question.
Jean twirled a blade of grass between her fingers, then said in a dreamy voice, “Scott is so awesome, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. It’s a secret.” Ororo didn’t think Jean was making it too much of a secret when she had tried to get Scott’s attention earlier.
“You know I would never tell anyone that.”
Jean rolled over on her back and said, “I was thinking that we should try out for the cheerleading squad when we go back to school.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Ororo said.
“Of course it is. What better way to get me closer to Scott? And if you became a cheerleader, Bishop would stop seeing you as a tomboy.” Jean said slyly. Ororo looked at Jean slack-jawed. “You didn’t think I didn’t know, did you? Oh my God, you are not serious! We’re best friends.”
Sometimes, Ororo would swear that Jean could read her mind. “I’ll have to ask my parents,” she said, not acknowledging Jean’s statement about Bishop. Ororo quickly changed the subject. She didn’t want to talk about boys or cheerleading anymore.
- - -
He was starting to get sick of Scott, and he hadn’t even known him a whole day. If given the choice, he wouldn’t have introduced himself to the asshole, anyway, but his father said it was important that he try to make friends. Bishop was an okay guy. Logan knew he wouldn’t have a hard time getting along with him at least. The only upside to knowing Scott was that he seemed to know many people “ girls in particular. In fact, Scott had just introduced him to a cute redhead named Jean and her friend, Ororo.
He was interested in Jean, but he couldn’t help but notice Ororo. Who wouldn’t? She was doe-eyed, innocent. He probably would have never given her a second glance if hadn’t been for those eyes and that hair. Her eyes were blue. Not that subtle, dark blue that could almost pass for black, but bright, crystalline blue that seemed unreal. And that hair. He had never seen a black girl with white hair before. Hell, he had never seen anybody with hair that white. Even her eyebrows were white.
You don’t just ignore those things, but she seemed very mild, making her almost a passing thought. Even when he had asked the “carpeting” question, she appeared angry, but it was that calm kind of anger. He could already tell that she was the quiet type. It was easy to forget she was around, especially when you added someone energetic like Jean to the equation.
He let his thoughts wonder back to the redhead. She obviously had a crush on Scott, but he wasn’t interested. Scott was going on and on about some girl named Wanda. And if Scott wasn’t interested (he wouldn’t have cared if he was), that left the opportunity open for him to make Jean his girl.
Later, he found himself at the park, arguing with Scott, Bishop, and some of the other boys about letting Ororo play football with them. Scott had showed him around and then assembled some of the local boys for a game of football. Logan thought he had heard wrong when Bishop said she played football, but apparently, he hadn’t.
“I ain’t playin’ football with no girl. She’s a girl.” He repeated as if to reiterate his point. He glared at Ororo and she glared right back at him, her hands placed firmly on her hips. “She might get hurt.”
“She won’t get hurt. She’s like one of the guys.” A boy named Rory said in Ororo’s defense.
“She always plays football with us,” Scott’s younger brother, Alex, said.
“Well, if she doesn’t play, I don’t play.” Another boy named, Japheth, said.
“Good, then it can be four-on-four.” Logan said snidely.
Bishop patted Logan on the shoulder, “I think you should give it up, man. You’ve been outvoted.”
“Don’t put her on my team,” Logan grumbled, annoyed that everyone, except him, wanted her to play. It wasn’t natural for girls to be playing football. Football was a man’s sport.
“She’s going to be on my team, and you’re going to be on Scott’s team. How’s that?” Bishop said.
“Wait, maybe I wanted Ororo on my team,” Scott argued. “You just want her on your team because you like her.” The two boys started to squabble. Logan couldn’t believe it. They were actually fighting over whose team she was going to play on. What was he, chopped liver?
“She was on your team last time.” Bishop said.
“No, she wasn’t. She was on your team.” Scott shot back.
“No, she wasn’t.” Logan’s eyes rested on Bishop. They were serious about this. She was just a stupid girl. She should be waiting on the sidelines with the other girls.
“Yes, she was.” Logan’s eyes volleyed back to Scott, who sported a pair of odd colored sunglasses that hid his eyes, but Logan could see that he was a little angry. Probably mad ‘cause he wasn’t getting his way. That almost made the argument worthwhile.
“No, she wasn’t.”
“Yes, she was.”
“Yes, she was.”
“No, she wasn’t.”
“You’re right. She wasn’t on my team last time, Scott. Munroe, you’re on my team this time.” Bishop said, beckoning her toward him.
“You tricked me!” Scott yelled after Bishop who was walking away with Ororo. Scott turned and looked at Logan and said through clenched teeth, “You better be good,” as if he couldn’t handle a girl.
They lined up for the first play. Logan chose to block Ororo just to prove a point. He shook his head at and she nodded back at him, her mouth pulling into a thin line, her eyes turning almost cold. She had a good game face, but there was no way she was going to get around him.
Alex snapped the ball to Bishop. Logan blocked Ororo’s path, but she did a juke move and spun around him, looking over her shoulder at Bishop. Bishop threw the ball in her direction before Rory brought him down. She caught the ball easily without breaking her run, and now, she was running full-speed to the designated end zone.
Logan couldn’t believe she had actually caught the ball. He stood there awe-struck for a second. “Go Ororo! Make a homerun!” he heard Jean scream. He might have laughed at her if he wasn’t trying to catch Ororo; she was pretty fast to be a girl.
She was near the end zone when lunged for her. They both fell to the ground hard. He thought he had tackled her too hard because she was shaking under him. He knew this would happen. Now, she was crying. He hated when girls cried. He stood up quickly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Then he realized that she wasn’t crying. She was laughing.
Ororo jumped up, still holding the football. She turned to look at him and spiked the football to the ground. “Touchdown!” she cried gleefully, doing the goofiest dance he’d ever seen. Logan couldn’t help but stare at her slightly amazed.
Bishop ran toward them, picking her up, spinning her around. “That’s my girl!” he said with pride. If those two kiss, I’m outta here. Logan thought to himself.
Before Ororo jogged off to rejoin her team, she said, “Better luck next time, Logan.” She patted him on the shoulder and trotted off to join her team. He balled up his first and remembered that she was just a girl. What just happened was nothing more than sheer luck
“I was just taking it easy on you because you’re a girl!” He called after her. In the end, her team beat his team 18-6, and Logan decided that maybe he didn’t have Ororo figured out… yet.
Author’s notes: Everyone mentioned in this chapter is affiliated (or has been affiliated) with the X-Men or one of their many verses. I just picked people at random. Hope you enjoy the revised version of this story, if you even remember that far back. I didn’t change too much for the most part (aside from the beginning) it’s the same.
