fantastic_torch | New York City, NY - Home of Johnny and Sue Storm

"What the hell is this?" He spoke to himself, standing in the kitchen and staring down at some school brochure that had been left laying on the counter. A note had been paperclipped to the front marking this coming weekend. Johnny had a feeling this flimsy pamphlet was not the bearer of good news. Without bothering to read it, he stormed off in search of Sue.

	Sue sat cross-legged on her bed, the sun shining in the window and giving bright illumination to the room. She had a book open in her lap, but the spring weather was distracting, and she sat gazing absently out the window instead.
	Johnny walked into Sue's room without benefit of knocking. His jaw was set firm and he was holding some brochure in his hand. "What is this? Some school, Sue?"
	Giving her brother a glare for just barging in, Sue's expression softened into something a little guilty as she reached out her hand for the brochure. "Mom and Dad talked to you about it?" she asked.
	He shook his head, settling his hands low on his hips, "I found it on the kitchen counter." He gave her a puzzling look. "So you know about this? Who's going? You? Because I know I'm not going anywhere."
	"Um..." Sue pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them, watching Johnny. He looked mad, and in a way she didn't blame him. "It's supposed to be a really good school, Johnny. They have a really unusual curriculum. I think it looks like fun."
	He quirked a dark brow at her, "Fun. So you are going then?" He figured he knew what she was talking about and he was going to avoid the actual words coming out of her mouth if at all possible. Dammit. Johnny pointed his finger at her, "You are going. Not me. Not me, Sue."
	"Why not, Johnny?" Maybe if she came at it from the angle of getting him to see it as his idea, things might go better. "Look at the brochure. They've got a firing range and survival classes. Mechanics. All sorts of interesting subjects, not just plain vanilla high school stuff. And imagine living in that dorm." Sue pointed at the picture on the glossy brochure. "It looks like a castle!"
	He barely glanced at it before he set himself before her large bedroom window, staring out. "How convenient that mom and dad left the country now." He smirked. "Vacation. They knew what they were doing, you knew what they were planning. And here I am, finding out at the last minute." He turned around to face her. "I have a motocross race on Saturday! I can't go!"
	Johnny had her there -- it was a pretty crappy stunt her parents had just pulled. Sue signed, hating the job of older sister sometimes. "There'll be other races, Johnny. Look at it this way. It's the summer session. So if it's really that bad, you can tell mom and dad that you don't want to go back in the fall. And maybe it won't be as awful as you think." Sue gave her brother a teasing grin. "Look, there's a beach. I'll bet there'll be lots of pretty girls out there."
	He was still looking grumpy. At least up until the point where she mentioned pretty girls. "A beach, uh?" Bikini's, hot chicks, this might not be so bad. "I have a date Saturday night, Sue. And she is so freaking hot. If I cancel out she'll just think I'm a dweeb or something. Man, school sucks. I'm too good for school. I don't need school. Look what I can do?" He snapped his fingers and a flame flickered over his palm. "Tell me, who needs school with a gift like this?"
	Rolling her eyes, Sue smacked the brochure against her brother's head. "Right, because human cigarette lighters don't need to know how to write in complete sentences or balance their bank account. Come on, Johnny. Give it a try? If it's really bad, you can call me, and I'll talk to mom and dad about bringing you back home."
	"Why do I need to know how to balance a checkbook? My future wife will handle all of that for me." He pointed out, ignoring her little slap with the brochure thing. "What if they don't let me fire up anything? What if I don't get to play, what if I don't get to ride my bike? You need me here Sue. I have to protect you from Reed." That was a little lie, but Johnny thought it sounded pretty dang good.
	"It's a school for gifted students. It says so in the brochure, which you would know if you would read it. 'Gifted students with unique talents and interests.'" Sue opened the brochure and pointed at the words as she recited them. Then she tilted her head to the side and gave her brother an annoyed look. "And you leave Reed alone, Johnny. You're such a brat sometimes."
	Johnny didn't need to read the brochure. He didn't want to read the brochure. It was stupid. It was all just stupid. "I'm not a brat. That's stupid Sue. I'm cool and you know it and I'm smart enough." His jaw tightened again. "Fine. Fine. Make me leave my home, everything I know. The girls. My fans. You are going to miss me and you are going to want me back here. Ben will no doubt love it. Maybe Reed too." He gave her another finger point, "Leave Reed alone. You're too young to know what you want yet." Yeah, this coming from her younger brother. "Crap. Well, I'm taking my Ben toy with me. You can't have it, Sue."
	Sue bristled a little at being ordered around by her little brother, but softened immediately when she realized that he was giving in. Getting up from the bed, she put her arms around Johnny and hugged him. "It'll be fun, Johnny. You'll love it once you get there, I know you will. You'll make all kinds of friends, and you'll probably have a new girlfriend by the end of the first week." Her voice faltered a little, because she really was going to miss him. It would be a quiet summer without Johnny around. "Promise that you'll call me and tell me what you're up to?"
	He hugged her back, tight, "I don't want a girlfriend, Sue, I want lots of girlfriends. How can a man expect to live with only one girlfriend?" He had heard the hesitance in her voice and was trying to lighten her mood a bit. He knew it would be hard on her. Still, it was going to be harder on him. "I hope they have co-ed dorms." Rearing back a little, he held her face between his hands, "I'm going to call you. You'll get sick of hearing from me will I be calling so much."
	"Like you wouldn't find a way to sneak in even if they didn't," Sue teased, with a little smile at Johnny's remark about the dorms. Then she bit at her lip to keep from tearing up, because she really was going to miss her little brother. For a minute, she thought about telling him to forget about all of it, and stay at home for the summer instead. But this school really did sound like the best thing for Johnny, so instead she nodded and hugged him tightly. "When the girls see you in your firesuit, I bet they'll just fall over themselves. Don't break too many hearts, okay?"
	He smirked, giving her that cocky grin of his, "You know they will." Or at least he hoped they would. "God, I hope the girls there are normal. I mean, what if they're - wait, no, I can't think about that right now." Johnny picked his sister up and spun her around, "I'm not a heartbreaker, Sue, you know that." Course he did tend to love 'em and leave 'em. "You'll call me too, right?"
	"Johnny!" Sue exclaimed, smacking her brother's shoulder while he spun her around. She was laughing, though, and it was good to see Johnny's cheer returning. That was her little brother, always cocksure and ready for fun. What a quiet summer it would be. "No, you just can't help it that the girls all want you, right?" she teased. "You know I'll call, Johnny. Someone's got to keep an eye on you."
	Setting her down, he laughed, "Right. I can't help it. I'm totally hot. And I said call, Sue, not pester." Quirking a brow, he picked up the brochure and started from her room. "Guess I might look over this thing and start packing. Come on, you can fold my clothes for me." Johnny gave her a teasing wink over his shoulder, but he was completely serious. He wanted her to come help him pack and keep him in a light-hearted mood. Tonight he would find a girl and drink himself into oblivion.