Ya Man Ain't Me
By AnimalGurl55
Chapter 1: First Day
"Girl I bet that he be actin' all cocky like
Like he deserves you, and you so lucky to be with him"
Garfield Logan slicked back his hair with gel. He clicked his tongue against his teeth and made a fake gun with his hand. He looked at his reflection in the mirror.
" Gar Logan," he said, " you are one HOT stud. All the girls are going to be all over you. And when Kori sees her old friend, she's going to be amazed at how much you've changed."
" Sure I will."
" GAH!" he turned around to see Kori climbing through the window. " Still climbing up my window like when we were younger, I see."
" Indubitably"
" Say what?"
" It's not a word that you can spell, my dear friend."
"I bet I could!" He thought his hardest, which at sometimes, was barely anything. " Um…I-N-D…E-B… Can you use it in a sentence?"
" Your word is indubitably."
" That helps."
" Just don't hurt yourself Garfield. Now are you going to continue to talk to your mirror, or are you going to come over her and give me a hug?" Her arms were out stretched.
He gave her a mighty hug. " It's so good to see you Kori!"
" You have to meet all my friends! And my boyfriend."
He gasped at her. " You have a boyfriend? Little miss 'boys have cooties, eww!' I can't believe you! I am appalled!"
" That was the 3rd grade Garfield! I left in 6th grade! And don't forget your little pun you made me do with you! Some random girl says 'What's your name hottie?'"
" Mr. Un."
" 'Do you have a last name Mr. Un?' And then I say ' Yeah, it's available."
He gave her his customary goofy grin. " And then we both say ' As in UNAVAILIBLE!" He rolled around laughing.
His mother's voice was heard downstairs. " Garfield Logan! You don't want to be late for your first day at Jump High!" (A/N: I'm doing the school system like it is in Tennessee. K-4 is elementary school, 5-8 is middle school, 9-12 high school. And if you're really smart like me and Kori you can be in Pre-Algebra in 6th grade. And like me and Kori you can be in the advance classes. And like me and Kori you've never had lower than a 95 in your life. Show of hands! …Wow, there isn't that many of you)
He yelled down to his mom. " Mom, I'm already an hour and a half early!" He turned to Kori. " Race you down the steps!"
Of course, it was close, but Kori's got really long legs, so she was faster. And she was on every sports team a female could be on between 7th & 10th grade. They were in 10th grade now. The Logans (excluding Gar) were surprised to see Kori, since she didn't go through the front door.
" Hello Mr. and Mrs. Logan. Just came in to walk Gar to school."
" Good morning Kori. Did you climb in trough the window again?" Mrs. Logan asked. Kori nodded her head in reply.
" Haven't had that happen in a while. Good to see you again Kori." Mr. Logan said from behind the newspaper. Kori and Garfield caught a picture of Bruce Wayne on the front page. He was standing beside his adopted son, Richard Grayson. Garfield and Kori picked up some toasted Pop-Tarts and were on their way.
It was a pretty warm September day, surprisingly. It wasn't really warm in Gotham. So Kori was wearing light blue Capri's, white New Balances, a light pink short-sleeved shirt, but that was kinda covered up by a light white jacket with a hood. On the back of the jacket was the word star written in sequins that had a star connected to the end of the cursive R. She had her hair parted slightly to the side with her dangling small chandelier earrings. Her emerald eyes shone brightly on her tanned skin.
Gar had on his Air Force Ones, pearly white, khaki shorts, a shirt with a thin green horizontal line, then a small thin blue one, then a small thin white one, and repeat that pattern blond hair was messy and almost covered his dark green eyes.
" Did you see that picture of Bruce Wayne and his adopted son, Richard Grayson?" Gar questioned. Kori nodded yes. " I hope I get to meet Richard. I heard he goes to the school. He must have girls crawling all over him. I bet you have a crush on him, don't you?"
She looked up at him and smiled. He must've gotten taller because he was taller than her. " Well I should. He is my boyfriend."
Gar stopped dead in his tracks. " The Richard Grayson is your boyfriend. You must be the most popular girl in school."
" Not the most, but at least the second. The first is Kitten Moth."
" Kitten? Imagine what her daughter's name would be. Why is she the first?"
" Because she lost her virginity when she was 11. She's the school…slut is what you could call her. She's way ugly; I don't know why anyone would enjoy the company of her. Carmen is also popular, around the 5th or 6th. Richard is the most popular guy alive. That's why Kitten hates me so. She can get any guy she wants with her money, every guy but Richard and the guys who hate her; Richard friends."
" So if I'm friends with you, I'm pretty cool."
" Yep. Turn this corner over here. I need to see Richard. I left my volleyball bag in his living room. Well, the first one." She began to run toward the big manor ahead. Garfield was behind her. Who has more than one living room? He thought. He watched as Kori backpack, a light blue one that was one of those ones that have one handle that goes on one of your shoulders (I put mine on my left) and goes across your chest and the actual part where your books go in is at the end, flew behind her like there were no books in there, when there were about 3. Garfield's own bag, those one that are like a normal backpack but only has one strap and hangs on your back like a regular backpack, just so happened to be empty. Then he actually caught up to her because he started running.
They ran up the long driveway and up the many steps. She rang the doorbell twice, her special ring. Richard came to the door, fully dress, not counting his shoes. He looked very good in his somewhat baggy jeans and his red shirt that was blue on the short sleeves. He looked behind his girlfriend to Garfield, who just smiled his stupid, goofy grin and waved. Kori introduced them before they both walked into the house.
Kori greeted Alfred and Bruce as she always did, and went straight to looking for her bag. She found it behind the couch after several minutes. She had already warned Garfield about touching things because once he touched; he broke. Gar eyed an exquisite piece of modern art. " Don't touch!" Kori yelled. Richard had already been in his shoes for a good 3 minutes. He had the same as Garfield. And Garfield notice.
" For the most popular kids in school, y'all don't dress like it."
Kori smiled as she walked over to Richard. " That's the difference between me and Kitten. She's popular and makes sure everyone knows it. I'm popular and I didn't even know it until a few months ago. I just act like myself and people just naturally liked me." It would have sounded snobby coming from anybody else, but with Kori, it sounded sweet and innocent.
Richard wrapped his arms around her as she turned around in his grasp. " You are so right, Kor." They gave each other a short, but sweet kiss. Gar was getting impatient; no surprise. " Can we get a move on, I don't even know anything about the school."
" You seem SO patient," Richard said. Gar already knew even though Rich was rich, (haha) he acted like a normal guy.
Kori told him about her closest friends. " There's you, and you already have met my boyfriend Richard," she indicated their locked hands, " there's Victor, he's on the football team, as well as Richard. I wouldn't let him try out last year. I didn't want him to get severely injured. Victor is very tall and he is African-American. His girlfriend is Karen Beecher; they just started going out. Sometimes we call her 'Bee'. I occasionally talk to Jennifer Hex and Wally West. Wally and I are some of the fastest kids in school. Jennifer is somewhat dark and gloomy. I know they like each other, but they won't admit it. And then there's Rachel."
" What about her?"
" You probably wouldn't be able to get closed to her."
" Why not?"
" Her boyfriend, Malcolm Black, is not 'over-protective', but he won't let anybody touch 'his property'. He is abusive to her and he has cheated on her numerous times."
Richard but in. " He even tried to get together with Kori!"
" I know for a fact that he has been with my sister, Carmen."
Garfield was confused as crap. " If he's so uncaring, why doesn't she just leave him?"
Richard and Kori looked at each other, choosing who would answer. Kori decided she should. They were at the school, so they sat at the table Kori, Richard, and the gang usually sat at outside. Kori kept her voice low, since Malcolm was known for sneaking up behind people. " I asked her that once as well. She has tried, but he would hurt her. Terribly. She didn't come to school one week after they had a fight." She turned to Richard, who continued the story. " Me and Rachel used to be real close, like brother and sister. But now Malcolm practically cuts her off from the human world. He doesn't let her go anywhere without him, or let anybody see her without his permission. Sometimes he lets Kori and I pass, but that's because we kinda know everybody, and we could find somebody to beat him up. He isn't that buff."
" So I shouldn't mess with him. So now about the teachers."
" Well Mr. Moth is the principal; another reason why Kitten thinks she's popular. The teacher you don't want to get pissed is Mr. Wilson. Rumor has it that he's a child molester that just got out of prison for a few years." Richard said.
" Of course you started that rumor," Kori said, punching him playfully.
" What can I say? I didn't get caught. Anyways, we have this one teacher, Ms. Rouge. She's got this Transylvanian accent. You know with the 'vampires'," he did air quotes. " Get on her bad side and she'll send you to 'derention' as she says it. And if you sit in her front row, you'll get spit on. Now for Mr. Mod. He's one crazy dude that always ends up calling you 'his ducky'; blame the British accent. He may be crazy, but he's got kickass project ideas, and you always pick your groups. This year they have the guy gym class separated from the girl gym class. The guys have Mr. Rancid; he has tough exercises. The girls have Mrs. Pantha, I heard she rocks out loud."
" Oh! And you'll love the drama teacher, Mr. Jumbo we call him. He's always up to Mumbo-Jumbo. And the Cooking teacher, Ms. May, is pretty old, but she makes great pies!" Kori added.
" Well," Gar satrted, " what's her sister's name, Ms.-"
" Don't even, Gar!" Kori said.
They had 45 minutes until classes started, so Kori and Richard followed Gar to the office so he could get his schedule. They waited outside.
" You know what, Richard?"
" What?"
" I just imagined Gar with Rachel. They seemed like a good couple."
" Then they must get together because you're like a matchmaker. First you thought about me and you," he kissed her forehead, " and look at us. And then with Vic and Bee last week, and you have a feeling about Jen and Wally, huh?" she nodded, as she does a lot.
" Well, I'm so glad I imagined you as my prince charming." She said as they both kissed. They broke it off after several minutes, smiling. " So," Kori said, " are you coming to the pep rally?"
" Yeah, aren't the cheerleaders, volleyball players, and the football players opening?"
" And the soccer players."
" What time's your game?" Richard queered.
" It depends how fast we crush the competition," she giggled, " Our first game starts at 4:00, about an hour or so after the pep rally. Then the other two teams play. They should be over at about 5:45, and then we'll play. What about yours?"
" Game starts at 7:00."
" I should be able to make it."
" Yeah, you better! I gotta have my #1 girl by my side."
" Well as long as you're at my game. My mom and dad are bringing snacks and Gatorade for each game."
" And I'll bring your gum. Because you can't play without gum (I know, it's SO hard!)"
They smiled. They knew so much about each other. Garfield came through the doors and they went back toward the outside cafeteria. Kori knew all of her closest friends schedules, and all of them had at least one class together. All of them, except Malcolm (thank goodness) were in the same theatre arts class. The perfect time, Kori and Richard thought, for Garfield to meet Rachel in private.
They walked outside and met Rachel, Victor, Bee, Wally, and Jennifer. They all made it a habit to show up at least 30 minutes ahead of the school bell, because Malcolm always came 5 minutes before the last bell. They all went to there secret hiding spot behind the bleachers outside where the football field was. Garfield was kind of just tagging along with them.
" Everyone, I would like you to meet my best friend from elementary and middle school, Garfield Logan."
Victor and Wally were about to crack up because he had the name of a fat orange feline. That's what made Garfield add, " I'd like to be called Gar."
They all made polite welcomes. Rachel was last. Her voice was quiet. " Hi, I'm Rachel. Hello Garfield." She shook his hand as she lifted her head up. They both felt a slight spark, which made them draw their hands back quickly. Garfield tried one of his jokes. "Is this field made out of carpet? There's a lot of static electricity over here!" Rachel didn't usually laugh at people's jokes, but Garfield was a bit different. So the least she did was crack a smile.
Kori and Richard looked at each other, then at Garfield and the walking away Rachel, then back at each other. Kori and Richard had this kind of psychic connection. They were both thinking; Let's get those two together.
And Gar was thinking something along those lines. He watch Rachel walk away and was thinking Rachel, your man definitely isn't me. So what can I do to be your man?
