consider it disclaimed
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enjoy
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tell
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Bette Interlude
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The light tapping of a pencil blended almost melodically with the droning voice of their professor. Artemis gave a silent sigh and stared down at the blindingly white pages of her text book. She had already read the assigned chapter and, unsurprisingly, she knew all of the information once again. She had been fluent in French for years so for the most part this class was an easy A and a good chance for catching up on lost sleep.
Glancing around the room, Artemis noted that more than half the students were slumped over their books or looking rather dazed instead of actually paying attention to the lesson. There was one person that stood out among the half asleep classroom of students and that was Bette, who was hunkered over her book and was taking notes rather furiously. To Artemis that was extremely out of character for the girl, as normally her fellow blonde would be face down in a puddle of her own drool at this time.
That thought brought a grin to Artemis's face. Bette never woke from her naps gracefully and that was one of the rare pleasures of French class.
The lightest of sounds brought Artemis back to the real world and the smile dropped from her face as she noted the origin of the sound. A tiny, tightly folded paper had landed on her open book. Glancing back over to her friend, Bette was staring her down while making exaggerated gestures at the triangle that had invaded her space.
'Open...It...' Bette had ceased the motions and had taken to mouthing the two words in a very particular way, she didn't even noticed as their teacher stuttered in his lesson as he caught sight of the girl's actions. After a few second long pause, he picked up where he left off. He was used to Bette's antics, everyone was.
Artemis gave her an exasperated stare, but complied. Picking up the meticulously folded paper, she struggled momentarily to open it without ripping the note like last time. When she finally reached the final fold, Artemis took a few seconds to shoot her friend a quick glare before letting her eyes scan the contents of the paper.
'What's with you? You were acting particularly strange this morning when I asked you about your weekend.'
'Just tired.' Artemis scribbled her short answer below Bette's loopy handwriting and wadded the paper up. Once she made sure that the professor wasn't paying any mind to the class, she tossed the paper ball back in Bette's direction. Bette picked the wad of paper from the floor after it ungracefully bounced off the side of her hair, sending a scowl in Artemis's direction. It was quickly send back with more force behind it.
'If you were tired, you would be asleep right now. We both know you don't need this class. Did something happen? Something happened, didn't it? What was it?'
'Nothing happened and the only reason I'm awake is because I need to brush up on my verb conjugations.'
'You're lying. Is that what he's going on about? I thought we went over that last week.'
'Why would I lie about that? And we did, but the whole class had their naptime this period. You included.'
'Because you don't want to tell me. Is it something embarrassing? So that means that you brushed up on verbs last week then. All the evidence points to you lying, Artemis.'
'I choose to plead the Fifth.'
The now wrinkled note was shoved in Artemis's bag without reading the reply that Bette had viciously lobbed at her face. Bette gave her a very hard stare before dropping her head down to rest on her book to utilize the rest of the period for a short nap.
Artemis groaned inwardly, completely aware of the message in the stern look Bette had shot her.
This isn't over.
The rest of the class period seemed to drag on without anything to keep Artemis distracted. At some point their professor had given up with a sigh and stopped his lecture to retreat into his office with the simple instructions of 'don't get too loud' to the few of them still conscious. When the dismissal bell finally rang, Artemis took great pleasure in watching the sleeping students jerk awake, disoriented and dazed, but was quick to make her way from the classroom to get a headstart on Bette. If she knew Bette, then the moment she regained her composure she would be on Artemis like Wally on food.
Ugh. Wally.
The cause of her apparently odd behavior was better left out of her thoughts for the time being, lest Bette actually gets the chance to interrogate her.
Dropping off her books at her locker quickly, Artemis booked it towards her next class upon hearing her name being called. She dodged her personal freshman troll and was thankful when he turned his attention to the next incoming blonde.
Just for that small favor, Artemis promises herself that she'll be nice the next time Grayson starts a conversation with her, or at the very least, try to be nice.
Letting out a sigh of relief as she slides into her seat, tossing a small smile to the redhead that sits next to her a few moments later.
'Hopefully, Bette didn't get her claws into Barbara about this,' Artemis thinks. Luckily, the younger girl only grins in return before opening her text book.
Feeling like luck might actually be on her side for once, Artemis opens her own book and prepares for a quiz on the bones in a foot. Unbeknownst to her, Barbara was spared by Bette in turn for the dark hair freshman troll.
But luck was far, far from her side.
Artemis had intended to walk with Babs to lunch with the hopes that the redhead would act as a buffer between herself and Bette, but she was whisked away before they even turned the first corner in the walk to their lockers. Dick Grayson called a greeting over his shoulder as he pulled Babs in the opposite direction, ignoring her loud protests.
She groans, lamenting the loss of her younger friend as the sight of her locker comes into view. The smug blonde leaning against the metal door next to hers only serves to cause Artemis more anguish. Artemis doesn't greet Bette, who continues to grin as Artemis tosses her things carelessly into the normally organized space. As she is contemplating shutting the locker door on her neck, Bette finally speaks.
"Killing yourself isn't going to stop me from finding out," she sings, her voice echoing in the now empty corridor. Artemis cringes, Bette isn't a very talented singer.
"If you keep doing that, my head will be better off staying in the locker," Artemis mutters under her breathe, smoothing down her skirt as she rights herself. She meets Bette's eyes and nearly steps back.
"I thought we were friends, Artemis," Bette speaks sullenly. Her eyes now downcast, but Artemis hadn't mistaken the brims of her friend's eyes filling with tears. Even her body language had changed in that split second, shoulders slouched and torso curling in slightly.
Artemis wasn't good with real tears. Especially with Bette-tears, but she knew Bette and these were not real tears of any kind.
Taking a deep breath, Artemis turned on one heel and pushed her locker door shut as she walked away. "You're trying to fake cry me into submission. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is."
Turning the corner that would lead the way to the lunchroom, Artemis heard a quiet 'hmph' and the quick tapping of shoes. Bette was at her side now, glaring as she kept pace with Artemis's quick strides.
"Come on. Tears always work on you," Bette huffs, pushing Artemis enough to knock her into a doorknob. "Whatever is bugging you must be pretty huge for you to be immune to the tears. Now I need to know."
Artemis steadies herself against the door she had hit and just shrugs it off. "Maybe your little teary eyed act just needs to get...Bette-r."
"But not enough to put you off the occasional bad pun," Bette deadpans, rolling her eyes. "I still need to know, besides you know you want to tell someone. You're fidgety, and everyone knows that when you're fidgety you're anxious. So let's skip all the formality crap because you wanna tell me."
Artemis pressed her lips together and gave skeptical look that was ruined by the amusement on her face. "Now you're just making stuff up, I am not fidgety."
"So maybe you're not now, but you will be," Bette says with an air of finality. "So in a few days or weeks or even months, you will break down and blurt it out to me. You do this every time, Arty. So save yourself the trouble."
"Do I really...?" Artemis stopped mid step, trying to think back to the last time something had bothered her as much as this. Her stomach clenched as dread began to creep its way up her throat. The hand now on her shoulder accompanied by the mockingly sympathetic tsk-ing, courtesy of Bette, did not help the situation.
"Told you. Your dad visited you without your mom knowing and went all not great father on you. Took you a class period to spill. So you've put up a good fight this time, lasted all the way up to lunch," Bette pointed out. "So just throw in the towel and do better next time."
Artemis groans aloud.
"You can't win this fight, so just fess up already I'm huuuungry," Bette whined, nudging her silent friend.
Artemis mulled it over.
On one hand, she was nearly itching to tell someone (anyone really) the situations she had been getting into lately. It was really only a matter of time before she blurted it out to her mother, the waitress as her favorite diner, or, knowing her luck, the goddamn Batman himself.
On the more sensible hand, she thought the other hand was stupid. This was something that she did not want to get out. Not to the school, not to her family (oh what a mess that would be), not to the Team, and definitely not to the goddamn Batman and the League.
Looking over at Bette, she sighed. The girl's eyes were as large and pleading as she could manage which was ineffective as she looked like a mixture of surprised and terrified, but it did make her smile slightly.
"Fine." Artemis relented, at least. "You will be very proud of me, I think."
Bette squealed as Artemis glanced around to make sure the corridor was completely abandoned. From where she was standing, it was.
So she began to talk, her words hurried and hands animated as she explained. It was a stressful situation and she had just begun to realize it even while omitting the bits and pieces about the whole superhero thing
Unbeknownst to the two blondes, a face was reddening with each sentence, nearly the color of his best friend's hair by the time the conversation ended in favor of food.
Dick Grayson peeked around the corner watching the two exit the building.
"Oh man, I have to tell Babs," he laughed to himself. Barbara would be more than surprised, even he was a little stunned by the final piece of the puzzle. Wally making cow eyes and more jabs at her? Roy being nicer? Kaldur nearly running away from her? And he couldn't forget the little incident with Miss M, in fact he doubted any of them could.
He knew something was up with the Team dynamic, but this?
...
The day ended rather uneventfully, Bette trying to advise her on the situation between her squealing about Artemis finally getting a boyfriend...or something. That just seemed to make the rest of their classes together drag on.
It was with a grateful sigh Artemis unlocked the front door to the small apartment, immediately littering the hallway with her shoes, socks and school blazer. She had every intent to shed the godawful uniform the moment she was behind her closed door, but stopped herself as a new thought popped into her head. The note from this morning...
Artemis shoved her hand and felt around for the crumpled piece of paper from this morning before gracelessly tossing her bag onto the cluttered surface of her desk. Smoothing the paper out, her eyes skimmed over the two styles of writing without much thought.
A slow smirk pulled at Artemis' lips as she found the unread, last entry into the note.
"All that means is that you're guilty, and I bet you did something bad."
Oooh man! Man, oh man, I never expected this stupid little interlude to kick off the resolution of this series...
Resolution, ha.
I definitely recommend you put this after Trust on the timeline..