For Rachel, who pointed out a detail about Jubilee to me.

Jubilee looked down at the book with tears in her eyes. She knew stealing it was wrong, and she knew that she would be in trouble if she told. It had just been a hard frustrating day, and she needed .... something. Quickly, she punched a number on speed dial.

Gambit was sitting downstairs in a little spot he had found. Quiet, discreet. Here, he could sulk all he wanted to. So what if Joseph had taken Rogue out on a date? What if they were getting serious? Why should he care? People were more trouble than they were worth.

The phone ringing distracted him from his well-deserved pity party. Quickly, he picked it up. "Allo?"

"Gambit, is Wolvie there?" Jubilee sounded like she was going to cry.

"Non, petite. He's gone t' New York. Can Gambit help?"

On the other side of the phone, Jubilee bit her lip. He might really understand what she was going through. "Do you ever- you know- want to steal something? I know you're retired, but did you ever see something that you wanted and want to steal it?"

Boy, could Jubilee ask a loaded question. Yes, the urge was still there. Stealing was a fine art, a master craft. He missed it as much as an artist would miss ink, or a pianist miss the piano. "Oui."

"What do you do? I mean when you are tempted to do something that you know is wrong?"

Jubilee needed to hear the truth, something that according to Rogue was in short supply in Gambit's soul. "Gambit t'ink abou' it, but he don't steal." After a minute he explained why, "Stormy be mad at me." He worked hard to earn some small measure of trust.

"I shoplifted something today." Gambit knew that Jubilee had at one time been a shoplifter, and quite good at it.

"Aw, why chere? You doing so good." Gambit had caught Jubilee pinching a necklace in New York shortly after Wolverine left the team, but she had promised that would be the last thing she would steal. And she had worked hard at keeping her promise.

Jubilee let loose some of the tears that she had held in. "We had this lit. test today, alright? Read "Hamlet" and take a test on it. Well everybody was reading it, and I couldn't. I mean I saw the words, and I knew they had meaning, but I couldn't connect the two." She started sobbing.

'I'm not dumb! I know that! But I have problems reading and remembering. So I go see Ariel, my best friend, who lives in town. She, her sister, and I sat in their apartment and read the whole thing out loud. I knew it!" It had taken hours, but Jubilee left feeling like she knew the play. It was cool once she got past the old-fashioned language. She had even memorized some favorite passages.

"Den wha' chere?"

"Okay, I take the test this morning, and pick up my pencil to write the answers." Jubilee held one hand over her stomach, remembering the sick feeling she had had holding the pencil and feeling the answers drain out of her head. "The room was so loud, and I forgot. I felt so dumb! Then I was mad at myself for forgetting, and then for feeling so dumb. And before I knew it, the test time was over and I was facing an F. So I got a ride into town."

Gambit frowned. The temptation to give into the urge was strongest when he wasn't feeling his strongest. And what Jubilee described was enough to knock the winds out of anybody's sails. Her school problems were a daily struggle for her. "Wha' ya pinch?"

"Believe it or not, a book! There was this booth in the mall and I picked 'Trixie Belden and The Sasquatch Mystery.' I'm so stupid. What do I do?"

Gambit sighed. He could help her with one area, but not the basic issue. Jubilee had a problem learning that she couldn't hide with a 'who cares?' attitude much longer. He understood Jubilee well enough to know that she took the book because she wanted the attention directed away from the F. She stole for attention. "Two t'ings. Put de book back and den ask for help with the school."

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Nobody's going to think I'm stupid! And if I tell that I have trouble, they will."

"Den put the book back and don't ask. Next time steal somet'ing better. Get more attention and it might be worth de trouble you get."

Jubilee squirmed. She didn't want to steal, but it had been so much fun when she was younger. Except for the empty feeling when she wore the stolen shirt or necklace front of her parents, and they didn't care enough to notice. Or the scared feeling she had when she passed a cop. "I'll buy the book tomorrow."

"Gambit call Banshee and tell him you having trouble with school if you want, petite." Jubilee's problems needed to be addressed.

"Don't!" Jubilee remembered a child, Rosa, in her second grade who was learning disabled. Everybody in the class had made fun of her.

"Chere, Jean-Luc worked with me for months before Gambit got de hang of t'ieving, and I didn't learn to read until I was ten. It took me longer dan de other kids, but I learned. He taught me dat de strongest people know where dey are weak and what to do to use dat weakness to be strong." Gambit still had a hard time understanding written languages, but he had learned with hard work he could do it.

Jubilee started to rethink the offer. When she had lived in California, her teachershad thought that she might have a learning disability. Celeste, who was learning disabled, thought the same thing. But she didn't want the extra attention and pity that went with being learning disabled. On the other hand, she was tired of just not making the connection between what she knew and how she did on tests. "I have a friend who will come with me if- when I tell them."

Gambit smiled at that. At least he had been able to help somebody today. "Bien."

"And Gambit-- thanks. Thanks for taking the time to listen, for being there. Thanks for not lecturing me."

"Anytime, chere."

"Bye Gambit. And Rogue has rotten taste."

"Bye petite. And t'anks." Now what was he thinking about people being too much trouble?