SATs and Other Things
SATs Part I
Wally had come back from school when he saw it. To other eyes, the envelope appeared to be perfectly harmless, all white and closed like that. But Wally knew better. Inside that letter lay his very future. The difference between a box and arouse, starving and healthy, community college and -gulp- MIT! (No, it did not occur to him that he was being dramatic. He wasn't.) This was not just an envelope, it was his fate. He gulped again, checked his watch, and then sped off to get changed. The yellow and red uniform had never felt so free. On his way to the Young Justice base, however, he grabbed the envelope. He had to face it sometime and this option was better than his father finding it first. Wally almost shuddered at the thought, but allowed his legs to carry him swiftly to the mountain, envelope tucked protectively against his chest.
When he arrived at the base, the automated female voice announcing his entrance, the first thing he noticed was the general emptiness. Wally wiggled. Oh, well, then that must mean people were elsewhere. He cast a wary glance at the envelope, as though suspecting it would leap at him and cut his face into bits. Wally sighed (again) at his own childishness, and gingerly set the envelope on the table in front of the couch. Wally himself sat opposite the terrifyingly still paper and he watched it, getting more and more anxious with each passing second.
The clock ticked down the minutes, and Wally suddenly realized that he should probably open it before someone did come, in which case they would prevent him from wallowing in despair at the little numbers. He glanced around nervously, green eyes scanning every possible corner fir a hidden person. Yup, best to open it now before it was too late. His hand darted towards the paper, sitting there innocently, as though it wasn't an evil demon sent from hell to torture him for eternity.
His hand missed, falling short about an inch, as though the envelope itself had moved (it hadn't; now, Wally was just paranoid). He stared at it in horror- he could do nothing more. His hand was frozen in place, contemplating the great divide that was an inch. An inch of possible dream-crushing, misery-bringing, hope-demolishing pain. Wally seriously couldn't decide between getting it over with and never, ever looking at it ever.
'Is it worth it?' He thought, an imaginary and exaggerated drop of sweat rolling down from his temple to his jaw. Even with his thoughts swirling around all the possibilities (although none of him even considered the possibility that he'd done well) he still couldn't decide.
Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the sliding doors suddenly opened, announcing the presence of the entirely of the rest of his team and about half of the Justice League, including everyone from Batman and Black Canary (who were often in the tower, for various reasons) to Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, both of which never had any reason to be in the tower. His uncle was also there. This fact almost made Wally sob in despair. The red haired teen stared at the group in horror, hand still extended towards the evil little envelope. The group blinked back at him, almost as one.
"Hey, kid," Barry was the first to break the dead silence, "Whatcha' got there?" The Flash sped over to his nephew in a flash, sitting beside him, and glancing between Wally and the little devil paper curiously.
"An evil demon paper from hell," Wally answered instantly, shocking most of the group with his conviction, "We should burn it and then spread each ash individually over the whole world so that they can never be reunited again." Everyone stared at the envelope a little more warily (they had seen too many things, an evil devil paper was something that could very well be possible in their eyes), but Uncle Barry wasn't fooled. He crossed his arms and narrowed sharp blue eyes.
"Uh-huh," The Flash said in his 'don't you bullshit me' voice, "And what is it really, Wally?" Several members of the group relaxed at this, while others looked slightly embarrassed for believing him. A few joined them in sitting on the couch and floor, all waiting to see what the envelope really was. They were really bored superheroes. Wally slumped, defeated.
"My SAT scores," he whispered. The only two people who heard him were Superboy, who had no idea what he was talking about, and Superman, who couldn't possibly comprehend how this could cause the little[r] speedster so much grief. His own SAT scores had been an exciting event, of course. Barry cleared his throat.
"A little louder now, kid," he encouraged. Wally almost sobbed (again) in despair (again).
"My SAT scores!" He practically shouted, "Ohmigod… I did horribly, didn't I? I did so bad that I'll never go to college, loose all of my money, and be forced to live on a box, begging for money." This sentence was muffled his hands, which he used to bury his face into. Everyone exchanged looks. So thats what this was about. Barry and Robin, in particular, knew that these scores had been haunting Wally for weeks. They also knew that Wally had probably done excellently.
"Wally! You have to open it!" Robin exclaimed, sitting down next to his best friend, "We studied together for hours, and I'm positive you did wonderfully!" Batman coughed as subtly as he could into his sleeve, hiding his slight surprise. So that was what the two had even doing together earlier that year.
"But Robin!" Wally exclaimed right back, practically emanating distress, "During the test, I was sure I was getting everything wrong! And now… I just know the scores are going to be horrible!" Robin sighed. Barry put a comforting arm around his nephew.
"Wally, just open it. Besides, even if you did do very badly, community college has to let you in. By law." Dinah, from where she was sitting on the couch next to Barry, slapped him quicklime giving him a sharp look that told the man he was not helping. Barry cleared his throat and quickly amended, "I mean, I'll love you no matter how you do, but I'm positive your scores will be excellent." Everyone smirked. Dinah had just about all of the males in the Justice League whipped to perfection. It was probably because she could hit so hard.
"Okay, here goes." Wally finally reached a hand and grabbed the envelope, although he held it as though it was death itself. Gingerly, he tore it open, and took out the folded papers with trembling fingers. Then he opened the papers and searched for the number themselves. The entire group leaned in a little closer, in expectation. Robin nudged Wally in the ribs.
"Read them out loud," He whispered, gesturing to the awaiting group. Wally gulped and nodded, then opened his mouth to speak. It was all very suspenseful, I assure you.
"Let's see… 720 in reading, 730 in writing, and…" He trailed off, eye widening, "Oh!"
Everyone acknowledged it- those were excellent scores. With those, he could probably get into any college he wanted, depending on his math shores. They were all pleasantly surprised, having not known the speedster was this smart. Barry looks proud, and a little smug. Oh well. He had the right to be.
"What is it, Wally?" His uncle asked, "What'd you get in math?" Wally looked up at him, practically glowing, and beamed. The strength of his beam practically set the room on fire, and people in direct line with it (Barry, Ollie, Dinah, and Batman, who were all sitting or standing on the same side of the room) had to blink for a few seconds in order to clear their vision from the blinding light sent by Wally to them.
"A… 790!" He shouted, leaping up and jumping around in glee, "Which means I have a 2240," They all smiled, no wonder he'd done so well on the math portion, "Which means that I can apply to MIT and not seem like a total idiot!" He jumped around, and as soon as Robin and Barry comprehended the words, they too, leapt up. The three did a very dignified and manly happy dance where they stood, shrieking- ahem, shouting- with glee. When they realized (in unison) that everyone else was staring at them in amusement, pleasure for Wally's success, and pleasure at watching them do something so… un-macho.
They all stopped and cleared their throats, sitting down as calmly as possible, before Wally piped up with, "Hey! I have an excuse, I got great scores on my SATs and now I no longer have to worry about whether or not I'll be living in a box!" The redhead really did seem quite fixated on that…
Barry immediately followed that with a, "And he's my favorite nephew! I have to support him, even if it means doing a happy dance!" Wally gave him a confused look.
"Uncle Barry, I'm your only nephew! You make no sense at all." He said, crossing his arms, and causing a chuckle to swim around the room. 'Uncle Barry' blushed and looked away.
"And I'm his best friend," Robin announced firmly, "I have to celebrate, especially because we studied together for so long for this! It'll be a breeze when I get to my SATs." Batman looked/glared at him (is there really a difference?). He was still annoyed about the fact that after Bruce had asked Dick what Wally and Robin were doing all those late nights, the cheeky teen had replied with, "Oh, you know, all those nasty, dirty things that most teenagers do after it gets dark." Instantly, Batman had decided to follow the two on their next 'outing', but they had stopped having them. And both Bruce and Batman were far too proud to ask, something that both Robin and Dick knew very well. Batman figured now, Wally must have taken his SATs and the two no longer needed to study together
Robin grinned back at his mentor and adopted father, knowing the big black bat must be steaming somewhere on the inside.
"Well, Kid," Green Arrow said fondly to one of Roy's best friends, "This is really great. I'm very happy for you." He reached out a hand and ruffled the teen's read hair, and his sentiments were echoed around the room. Even Batman grunted in proud acknowledgement and Wally flushed all the way down to his neck.
He shook it off quickly, and ruffled Robin's hair affectionately, smiling in thanks. "Smartest fourteen year old ever," The speedster said, sounding almost smug about it. Robin smiled back, but slapped the hand off his head.
The rest of the Young Justice team came to surround Wally with congratulations, while Barry went to stand proudly beside Batman, accepting compliments from league members who didn't know Wally well enough to intervene the little huddle his team had going on. Barry thought it was a rather cute huddle, while Batman next to him refused to have the same thoughts.
"Good job, bay watch," Artemis said with a fond half-smile, patting him on the back. Wally grinned genuinely at her, and then Kaldur stepped in with his smooth voice.
"Yes, Wally, this is wonderful." The Atlantian radiated calm happiness at the redheaded teen, and Wally suddenly reached an arm out, slinging it over the dark shoulders of his leader, a rough and unexpected show of affection.
"Thanks, Captain!" Wally exclaimed happily, and Kaldur relaxed under the strong arm.
"You're welcome, Kid." Then Megan stepped forward shyly, and placed a hand on Wally'.
"While I do not know much about SATs, having never taken them myself, I understand that they are difficult tests and that they are important to your future in some way. So, Wally, it makes me very happy to know you did so well." She said in he bright, polite way. Wally grinned at her, and for once, didn't try to flirt. This was a moment that he would not mess up.
"What are SATs?" Superboy asked in his blunt way, eyeing the speedster curiously. Wally laughed, unhooking his arm from where it was around Kaldur's shoulders, and placing it around Superboy's, which was much more difficult, considering how tall the clone was compared to Wally.
"They are evil, evil tests that I hope you never have to take, Supes." He explained (badly), winking a bright green eye at the stoic teen. Superboy nodded stiffly, still somewhat unused to Wally's sudden signs of affection towards him. Then, Wally turned around confused, as though he had remembered something.
"What are you all doing here, anyways?" He asked the various members of the Justice League. They looked at each other, before Green Arrow burst out in a fit of very manly giggles.
"Well, actually," He said, "We were only here because Miss Martian over there said she had finally made the perfect cookies, and that her uncle 'really must try them'. Then, J'onn invited all of us with him because we were all really bored at the tower." Ollie wrinkled his nose a little, "There's been no major anything for ever, and so we said yes. Cookies are always accepted treats."
Wally laughed, face brightening even more (several more members were blinded by the radiation of it) as he turned to gaze at the blushing, green skinned girl, "So, Meg, can I try some of those cookies of yours, then?"
A/N: Right now I'm in Europe on a trip around the countries of Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. I'm in Switzerland and you wanna know something? You have to pay to pee. TO PEE! Agh, it's driving me crazy. Everything is super expensive here. Anyways, this was born when my sister (who's going to college in a year), went to check out Trinity (Dublin) and St. Andrews (Scotland- somewhere). She has the SAT scores for it, so I was excited to write this about Wally, who I perceive as being extremely smart, even if he doesn't always seem like it. A 2240 is an EXCELLENT grade, just so you all know. Anyways, read and review, please!