"Artemis, it's time! Go up on stage with the other girls!" Artemis's mom encouraged her daughter. It was June 1st, the day that most Asian countries celebrated Kids' Day. But they weren't in Asia, they were in North America, so instead they went to the small festival in the park to celebrate with other Asian families.
"But Mom, what if they don't let me dance with them?" Artemis asked nervously. All of the other kids had black hair, hers was blonde, and everyone was giving her a mean look.
"They can't do that. The teacher and I won't let them."
"But what if-"
"No more buts Artemis, you've been practicing, you won't mess up. And if anyone makes fun of your hair, tell them it makes you special Con (daughter)." Her mom said before hugging her. "Don't be afraid, you can do it!" she said before pushing her to go on the stage and dance with the other girls participating.
Artemis was on stage with the other girls in no time. She stood off to the side next to a girl named Jade who loved the Cheshire cat, and looked out into the audience. There wasn't anyone she knew asides from her mom. She felt alone. The only thing she had in common with this crowd was her eyes. Who knew there were so many Asians around here, she certainly never saw any at school -but then again, she didn't know many Asian people. Feeling even more lost in the sea of dark- haired people, she looked down getting ready for the routine, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw a splash of red hair. She looked back up; it was a little boy around her age with red hair. He turned and looked back at her; she waved and he waved back. The music started playing so she had to get ready to perform her routine with the others.
After a couple of minutes of moving around the stage with the other girls, the routine was finally over and Artemis jumped off stage in search of the red head, not even stopping long enough for her mother to congratulate her. It wasn't hard to find him. She found him looking at one of the game booths.
"Hey," she called out without much thinking. He turned around and she just stood there. What was she going to say? She should've thought this through.
"Hi," the red head said sticking out his hand. "I'm Roy."
"I'm Artemis," she said just staring at his hand and wondering why he had it out. Were they going to do the hokey pokey?
"You're supposed to shake it," he said smirking a little.
"Whatever, what are you doing here? Are you half too?" She knew what a hand shake was, she just never saw another kid do one, and she was more interested in knowing about him.
Roy shook his head. "No, I came with my adoptive dad, but I kind of got lost." He looked a little embarrassed.
They stood there for a while pretty awkwardly, not saying anything. "Want to play?" Roy asked gesturing to the booth. It was one of the water squirting games with the rising marker-things, one of her favorites.
"I don't have enough money," she said sadly.
"Don't worry about it," he said pulling out another 3 dollars and giving it to the booth runner. Accepting his offer, she climbed onto the stool.
"Prepare to lose," they said simultaneously.
Artemis won the game, much to Roy's annoyance. The game had to be rigged; their markers reached the top at the same time! Roy was still moping when Artemis shoved a teddy bear into his arms.
"It's yours," she said. "For paying for me to play."
Roy was surprised. No one ever gave him a gift for almost no reason. He was going to say something when a large blonde man with a beard picked him up.
"Roy!" he shouted and hugged him. "Thank God I found you! I thought you were going to be lost forever!" This man was way to affectionate- and kind of weird- Artemis thought.
"Ollie! Put me down! Can't you see I was talking to someone?" Roy asked annoyed but his protest went unheard when the strange man started running and shouting towards a woman named Dinah.
"I found him Dinah!" he screamed, holding Roy up like he was Simba from The Lion King. The Dinah woman just started to scold him and hit him on the head. Roy on the other hand was just plain embarrassed; everyone was staring. She's laughing at me. She's gotta be laughing at me, Roy thought as he was put back onto the ground. Looking back, Roy decided that her smiling at his predicament wasn't such a bad thing.
"Come on Roy! Let's go home!" Ollie said with an arm around both of them, leading them to the car.
~10 years later~
"Remind me, why am I doing this?" Red Arrow asked his irritation showing in his voice as he carried Artemis back to Green Arrow's (secret identity's) place.
"Because we helped you kick some ass, some of us got hurt, Megan's unconscious, this place was closer, and no one can carry her because everyone else, AKA Superboy and me, is already carrying somebody else," Wally summarized. After the reminder, Roy tuned anything else he said out, trying to figure out why Artemis seemed so familiar.
Artemis regained consciousness 2 hours later wondering where the hell she was and why she lying on a super soft bed with someone? She finally decided to actually open her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was in a huge bedroom with her teammates and Red Arrow. Everyone that had been hurt were all on the bed with her, which was huge too, while the red heads and Superboy crashed on the couch. Wonder if I can borrow some clothes she thought, looking at her torn, bloodstained uniform. The guys changed after all. She crawled over to the dresser, trying not to wake anyone up, and mentally cursed when she couldn't read the handle to open it and then continued to complain about actually getting up, completely ignoring the fact she would have to get up anyway. After a few minutes of going through the drawers and finding clothes, she went looking for the bathroom.
"Oh my God." This closet is huge. After becoming curious-er and curious-er, she went in and vaguely wondered if she would end up in Narnia. After finding nothing but clothes for a while, Artemis was beginning to wonder if there was an end. Soon after that thought, her face found it.
"Ah!" she hissed. "Stupid…" she hissed again as she stepped back onto something. She looked down and saw the teddy bear she had given that boy all those years ago.
"You can kept it if you want," a voice said. Artemis turned around to face Roy, playing with the teddy bear in her hands.
"No. You can keep it. You can just get me one at the festival next week," she said. Then added, "Provided you don't lose," with a smirk.
"You're on," he smirked back.
So, Kids' Day is some kind of celebration celebrating kids... I think it has something to do with anti-slavery or something, I dont remember. I was inspired when I saw some kids dancing on tv and my grandpa explained to me that that day was Kids' Day, June 1st, in Asia. In other countries, it's on a different day, but let's just ignore that. I don't think Americans celebrate it, although there was a kid who asked for it ( he asked the president too). And let's also ignore Roy's sociable-ness by introducing himself first. Thanks. And this was also written before we found out Artemis and Cheshire were sisters. Thanks. Orange.