Since I got hit in the face with this plot bunny, here it is. It's not my best and probably a little bit sketchy but I kinda enjoyed the idea of doing your irrepressible high school manga-esque drama. So uh, here it is. RaexRob I do believe. Forgive me, I'm obsessed.
Dedicated to: The Writer you Fools
Can't Buy Me Love
Chapter 1
"I so hate you."
"You just think you hate me."
"No, I'm pretty sure that I know I hate you."
"Pretty sure? That leaves what? A 10 percent chance you don't hate me! How about that?"
Raven rested her chin on her right hand, eyeing her classmate Richard with the perfect combination of a scowl and a smirk that made her both formidable and a little bit frightening.
Sexy too, but then there was that frightening bit...
"Don't flatter yourself Grayson," she bit out, eyes narrowing to slits. "I'm only doing this because otherwise my grade would suffer." Her company arched a cocky eyebrow in semi-hidden amusement.
"Oh really?" He leaned over the table, lowering his face right in front of hers.
Raven simply rolled her eyes and pushed him back unexpected force.
Richard Grayson went flying back into his respective chair.
She shot him a look.
"Really."
"Too bad, bit of a waste don't you think?" he replied, rocking back in his chair. Raven wished for a moment she had telepathy so as to make him fall right over backward, head first.
But some things were too good to ask for.
"You? A bit," she said smoothly and Richard laughed, whistling at her quick return. Of course, he expected no less from her...Raven Roth, resident icy intellectual and vicious vixen.
When the teacher had called their names as partners Richard had nearly fallen out of his seat, disbelieving in his luck. Sure, he was the stud of the century, but this opportunity? This was a shock even to him.
And now he sat with her not a step closer to his goal and their last meeting at its end—a meeting made solely to square away the final footnotes of their project.
It'd be a shame to see her go without achieving his goal...such a waste.
"Actually, I was talking about you," he led into his longer answer. Raven, as he expected, tilted her head to one side.
"Me?" It was a mesh of someone who was both insulted and pre-maturely planning revenge.
"You," Richard affirmed and then after a pause, "And me."
Raven groaned.
"What are you playing at Richardson?" she asked with a clipped tone, brushing her hand through her hair, irritated.
"I'm saying after all this time you've spent with me, it's a waste to see us part here like this," he smiled a little too confidently. Raven's glower did its best to cancel out the popular boy's megawatt grin.
With some success.
"Like this? As in going our separate ways? If anything this is the best part. This whole project has been a waste of time," Raven shot back and added with a sigh, "Are we done, by the way? I feel the sudden intense calling of home, and some quiet." She added the last word with a bit of a pointed look which Richard was careful to be oblivious of. Instead he stood and circled the table to stand and lean down next to Raven, who not expecting his movement, was a little bit more than flustered.
"Well then, come on Ice Queen, let me show you how to use our time more...productively," he whispered against her ear. Raven took a moment to register his proximity, then his words, and then his insinuation.
Raven then picked up the nearest hardcover book and hit him in the chest with it.
Richard let out a rather less than cool yelp—something he'd want to keep quiet from his horde of fan girls...and boys...
"What the Hell?" He took the book from Raven after she hit him with it again in a more definitive gesture of 'take it…now!'
"Read a book and keep your distance, jerk," she said and began to put her things into her knapsack.
"Let me buy you dinner," Richard said as she began to walk out of the library. A couple people shushed at him but he paid them no heed. Raven increased her pace. Richard matched it.
"No."
"A movie then." He always spoke in statements, as if he expected the world to say 'yes' to him every conceivable second...it made Raven want to hurt him in ways that she was certain were illegal in most countries.
Not that she really minded the rules too closely...
"No." She hurried down the steps of the library, Richard at her heels.
Like a pathetic puppy dog, Raven mused a little more gently than she'd ever imagined she could muse about anyone and tightened her scowl to bury the notion.
Gentle? Richard? Puppy dog?
Oh please.
"Well then, clearly there's only one other option," Richard finally side-stepped and looped around Raven to stand directly in her way as he finished, "Your place or mine?"
"Okay Grayson, enough. The project is done. You can go back to flirting with your usual crowd and stop settling for me, since we all know I don't have what you're looking for. On top of that, even if you didn't want to go back to your obscenely numbered fan club, you are light years ahead of yourself to think you can even begin to pick up on me. So either get out of my way or I'll push you down these stairs and make it look like a very, very unfortunate accident," she finished in an almost unbridled rush of passionate anger, built up after a month of putting up with Richard Grayson and his various antics.
Richard for once, was speechless as Raven pushed past him in a manner that suggested she half wanted to push him down the stairs anyway, just for the heck of it. He turned to say something witty, something smug, something that would really get under her skin, but he had nothing.
So Richard watched Raven go with little hope of ever getting near enough to her again.
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A year passed.
Some things changed.
"Hey Ice Queen."
And some things didn't.
Raven Roth rolled her eyes at the random boy who passed by with the remark...Roy was it?
Idiot, she thought absently as she went back to reading her latest feed: a novel-length legend of sorts. It was, apparently, becoming a bit of a love story, but it also continued to intrigue the dark-eyed girl, so there she stood, back against the windows as she held the book clean up to her face, as if to block out all other people around her. Even a year had changed little with her—still not terribly sociable, still rather unusually frightening...still enviously gorgeous in that 'I might kill you in your sleep' way...like a bond girl, only less of the 'take me now' more of the 'take you out'.
Yep, that was Raven.
"Rae!" a cheerful voice burst onto the scene. Raven lowered her book a couple defining inches to meet the emerald stare of Star Anders, beautiful Fire Princess of the school, sweet, amiable and a little bit naïve. Just a little. This was one thing that still had the populace of Jump High bumbling about with question marks zinging left and right.
Ice Queen and Fire Princess?
Say what?
No one knew exactly when or how it had happened, except for Raven and Star of course, but the two had, one day, suddenly started being seen in each other's company, and occasionally with both parties looking rather comfortable…happy even.
Still, as most things are when people can't work out the how, when, and why, this was shortly just another accepted part of daily life. Star, open about most things, did not ever divulge anything about her friendship with Raven and Raven, not open about anything, wasn't expected to.
"Star," Raven greeted, monosyllabically, but not unkindly. There was a bit of a fine line.
"My friend, let us walk," she said and took Raven's arm in hers as she steered the reluctant girl down a less empty corridor. Never would Raven understand where or how Star got to be so strong. It was a little scary...cool, but scary.
Somehow, Raven thought her red-haired friend knew this.
"What's going on?" Raven asked as they walked, Star smiling a smile Raven had learned in months past not to quite take for face value—if she valued her well-being that is.
"Come, I'll show you!" And Star all but dragged/threw Raven into the newsroom, quickly closing the door behind her. Raven arched a brow.
Okay, now she was curious.
"Alright, so, I repeat, what's going on?" Raven crossed her arms. Star's smile widened. Raven gave a barely discernible wince.
"You know about the auction, yes?" Star said and Raven felt her stomach turn to lead.
"...yes."
"And well, we're a little short on girls so I was thinking—"
"Absolutely not Star Kori Anders, absolutely not!" Raven flung her hand back in emphasis only to hit it against the desk. She yelped and cradled her now throbbing hand with a sulky look she only opened up enough to let a select few see.
"But Rae—!" Kori shook her head, disappeared into a side room. Raven heard the water start running, some rummaging, the water stop, and then Star reemerged. She took Raven's hand in both of hers and carefully pressed a cold cloth against it. The burning and throbbing dimmed immediately and Raven's defenses softened just a little.
"Thanks," she said and Star shrugged.
"The fault is mine," she started a bit remorsefully but then, quick as a cat added, "But you honestly won't consider?" Raven shook her head no. Star sighed as she disposed of the cold cloth and then perched on one of the several wooden desks.
"Star, what could you possibly hope to get from having me in it anyway? I'm not you...why don't you enter?" Raven asked, realization dawning on her and a bit of curiosity. Star frowned, though it looked a little more like a pout.
"I'm one of the coordinators. I can't, besides you're not as unpopular as you think, Rae...please?" Star took the moment to clasp her hands and speed in front of Raven, kneeling in a perfectly dramatic and perfectly imploring position. The subject of her attention furrowed her brow, looking away, trying her best to resist her friend's gentle and irrepressible charm and beseeching tone.
Trying...
She glanced down at Star who had begun to lightly make her eyes water.
Still trying...
Raven looked again. Now Star was very much pouting.
...failing...failed.
"Oh for…!" Raven didn't even finish as Star tackled her in a fierce, air-depriving hug.
"Friend Raven, this is most wonderful! Thank you! Meet me in the auditorium, backstage after the final bell this afternoon, alright?" She flashed Raven a genuinely kind and grateful smile as she shot towards the door, as if afraid Raven might change her mind in a second—which she might have.
"Wait, Star what do the people in the auction have to do? Star?"
But Star was already out the door.
"Great," Raven rubbed her temples. "Just great."
She looked up at the ceiling. Well, it couldn't be too bad, worst being that she'd go for an embarrassingly low amount, but that was Star's fault for not listening to her in the first place. Not popular didn't begin to describe Raven after all...it was more like...not approachable...at all.
Ever.
Still...that didn't really matter to Raven. And beyond that, it couldn't be that bad. She'd probably get some jock who wanted her to do his homework for him or someone random who took pity on her...not that bad.
Resolved with herself for the moment, Raven exited the newsroom, a soft smile hitting her face as she noticed Star's nameplate on the Editor's desk. Some people got the wrong idea about Star, didn't see the smarts the girl really had, but intelligence was something Raven had always been privy to and...well, she was glad Star did something with it.
Some girls, as Raven had come to understand, pretended to be less than they were to entrap more of the male species...something she could not begin to understand.
She was proud of Star for not being one such girl.
And, privately, she was very glad to be Star's friend. They shared a better understanding of each other than either one could explain in words, but it was there. When they'd met, about half a year ago, it had been raining and Star had just moved there. She'd been lost.
Raven had found her and through a series of conversations they'd come to an unspoken agreement: that both enjoyed each other's company, if shown in very different ways.
Turning down the hall towards her next class, as she rounded the corner Raven ran into what she thought might be a wall, but it was a little warm and not quite as unforgiving. She backed up quickly.
"Sorry," she said.
"I'm not," came a familiar voice and she looked up. Her apology melted with an onslaught of old irritation.
"Grayson," she nodded and went to walk away but he pinned her between the end of the lockers and his arm, that well-adjusted, cocky smirk lighting everyone of his features as he eyed her thoughtfully.
"It's been a while," he said.
"Well you know what they say, all good things must come to an end," she replied and he laughed at her. Vaguely she felt her blood begin to boil.
"That's what I like about you Raven, you're always so quick. Just like that!" He snapped his fingers and stepped back quickly.
"I'm honored," she said, sarcasm blanketing the two feet of space between herself and Mr. Grayson who stuffed his hands in his pockets lazily.
"You should be," he grinned and before Raven could say something else he began to walk away, shouting as he went, "You should be!"
Then the late bell rang and Raven had just one more reason to think of a painful death sentence for her less than bearable peer.
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The day had been, needless to say, a disaster after that. Raven was late. Raven couldn't concentrate. Raven kept drawing angry scribble faces on her paper instead of taking notes for the important midterm. Raven just barely escaped detention by tooth, nail, and an unusual display of begging, since she needed to work on her papers, and on top of it all, Raven still had to be in the auction.
As she stood backstage, looking less than enthusiastically for Star, she duly reconsidered, but rubbed her closed eyes knowing she couldn't back out. Star was counting on her, for whatever reason, and though Raven's friends were few and far between, she'd be damned if the ones she made didn't get a proper friend in return. Still...
Raven scuffed the floor with the toe of her shoe. Damn it all.
"Rae, there you are! Okay, so when I call your name you'll come out on stage and we'll start the bidding okay? Gotta go, a little late!" Star smiled apologetically as Raven once more tried to extract from her what she had to do, and failed.
The Ice Queen hit her head against the nearest wall...lightly of course.
Out on stage Star waved at the uproarious crowd of students, smiling and nodding her head.
"Quiet please, quiet?" Star tried. The crowd, if anything, increased in its roar. Star twitched slightly. "QUIET!"
There was quiet.
"Ahem," she forced a dainty half-cough. "Now then, shall we get this auction under way friends? As you know there will be a fair number of your fellow students to bid on. Don't be stingy," Star smiled with her lips and warned with her eyes. The crowd nodded, still a bit stunned from her earlier outburst. "Right, then let's bring out your first student. You know him as captain of the swim team, rank 3 in the entire Senior class, and one of the 2 princes of the court, what is my first bid for Garth? Any takers? Ladies?..Men?" Star giggled at the last addition.
"15 dollars!" a male voice shouted out. Star did her best not to choke on her laughter. Well, she'd been half serious.
"15 bid, anyone for 16? Anyone?" Star smiled and went to stand next to Garth who wore the same expression he almost always wore: an almost unnervingly serene smile.
In the end he went for an impressive 65 dollars, not bad for the first bid. Others were lower, a few higher. And behind the curtain Raven began to realize with some misgiving that Star was saving her for last. What on earth could that spacey girl be doing, Raven wondered nervously as she played with her charm necklace.
It glinted in the soft backstage light, a delicate silver chain with a silver star locket on it, not gaudy or childish, but finite and beautiful, and rather small to the point that no one could quite guess what would be small enough to fit in said locket. Twirling her fingers in the chain faster and faster, Raven felt herself jump as Star called her name. Untangling her fingers she inhaled deeply.
It couldn't be that bad.
It couldn't.
Just do it and get it over with, it will be nothing.
Raven wondered at how fiercely she was trying to convince herself shortly before someone pushed her out through the curtains—she'd have to kill him or her later...whomever it was.
"Ah, there she is!" Star turned and gestured for Raven to come further out onto the stage. Raven shuffled to the center with a look of long-suffering, but this was often the look she wore, so no one really questioned it.
"Anyways, as I said, here she is, your resident Ice Queen," Star said with all the charisma she seemed able to manifest on the spot...a lot...as usual. Her title usage earned her a quizzical look from Raven who erased it quickly, realizing how spotlighted she was. She understood now. The Ice Queen was a commodity in itself, so to speak.
Raven repressed her thousandth sigh of the day.
Go figure.
"Well, speak up," Star prodded the crowd, which had begun to whisper amongst all of themselves. Raven almost smiled. Yes this wasn't so bad after all. Sure the stage lights were hot as Hell and she was certain that she'd be somewhat bitter about this later for some reason, but other than that it was looking like her prediction would come to pass. She'd get a pity bid—maybe from Star herself—and walk away relatively unscathed.
Not so bad.
"300 dollars."
The whispers cut to a halt and Raven and Star both stared agape, looking for the source of the voice.
It sounds vaguely familiar, Raven thought suspiciously with a familiar twitch in her left hand...the kind she got when particularly vexed...the kind she got when he was around...
He...?
Oh no.
Hell no.
Raven spotted the voice's owner in the middle set of doors in the back of the auditorium—there were three sets. There, leaning in the doorway, the cockiest bastard she'd ever laid eyes on, and ever would, she presumed, waved three expensive bills airily.
She grabbed onto Star's arm and whispered hurriedly, "No, you can't. Star, tell him he's not allowed, I don't even know what I have to do, Star please!" Star glanced at her, a bit at a loss.
"I can't Rae! And do you know how long it would take us to raise that much for the paper alone? Please Rae? It's only a week—"
"A WEEK?" Raven shouted before she realized it and then turned to awkwardly stare at the crowd of students, all of whom had the grace to stare equally as awkwardly back at her.
Richard just kept on smiling.
Next what the crowd saw was Star lean in and whisper something to Raven who whispered a much more vehement whisper back, to which Star outdid her vehemence and seemed to seal the deal as she turned to face the crowd with a half-smile.
"Well, then any other bids?" she asked because that was protocol. Without doing the 'going once, twice, sold' bit she had been doing Star said, "Well then, clearly Richard you have won—"
"310," a cool voice sounded. Raven's shock was only outdone by Richard's as they turned to the source of the bid: Kitten Moth?
What the Hell?
Of course, who else would have enough money to even try and outbid Richard?
Raven made no pretense of being alright and rubbed her temples as she said in normal tones to Star, whose microphone picked it up: "Someone is going to get hurt."
The students, whom had begun to chatter again clammed up. Raven, it seemed, had her fear factor intensified when she put a microphone into the mix. Kitten Moth, standing with one hand on her hip sneered in a way that made Raven reconsider Richard. The girl was...a little messed up...came from the money probably...
"Well alright then, 310 going once—"
"350," Richard interrupted.
"360," Kitten upped.
"365!" Richard approached Kitten, arms crossed, not noticing really how Kitten's grin got wider with his closeness.
"370," she said, unaffected.
Richard looked like he might extricate Kitten's head from her body.
Not that many people would have minded.
Star, nervous herself at last, said hurriedly, "Okay 370 going once, 370 going twice—"
"500 dollars," Richard said calmly. Kitten's face warped from assuredness to horror as she pointed an accusing finger at him and opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out as Richard pushed past her and approached the stage. He stared up at Star who was staring at him already.
"500?" she squeaked.
"She's mine," Richard said simply.
Star looked from Kitten to Raven to Richard, then back to Raven who looked heavenward in response. Clearly this said something to Star however, who turned to Richard and simply said, "Sold."
Yeah, so a bit nuts. Sorry about that. I couldn't resist, maybe I'll come to my senses and get rid of it later hahaha XD….MIDTERMS KILL your brain.
Sigh. Okay, I'm quiet. Sorry. Thank you for each review, they really make my day AND help me keep sane!
Rei