Chapter 1: Schooldays
Gotham Academy
01/02/13
1:45pm
"Garth..." Mrs Orchard said calmly.
No reply.
"Garth Daniels." She now said with frustration.
Again, No reply.
Mrs Orchard turns her focus to the student sitting behind the daydreamer.
"Artemis would you please get Mr Daniels attention for me?"
Artemis kicks the underneath of her classmates chair making him audibly jump as he awakens out of his trance. "Get your head out of the clouds Daniels" Artemis sighs. Garth turns around to look at the interrupter of his daydream and then he looks around the room as he tries to reclaim his composure, after not paying attention during his second to last lesson of the day.
"If you're not going to pay attention during my lessons then I'm afraid you're either going to have to start staying after school to catch up, Or I will have to phone your parents at let them know you aren't taking my lessons seriously?!" The teacher was getting more and more frustrated with each passing word.
"Is not that I'm not taking your lessons seriously teach' it's just that... well... what class is this?"
The school bell rings, signaling that class is over. Also signaling that Garth can get out of this situation with his oh so favorite teacher.
"The bell doesn't excuse you I do! six of you haven't handed in their homework and I want it by tomorrow morning." Mrs Orchard states trying to get the attention of her students, who seem to be heading to the door whether they heard their teacher or not. Garth manages to merge in with the crowd of his classmates. "That lesson could have gone better" He says under his breath as he exits.
"If you don't start paying attention then that woman is going to focus on me as a substitute you know." Garth again turns round to see the girl who sits behind him in two of his classes. "Oh hey, It's Amelia right?"
*You've got this Garth*
Blank stare.
"Not even close Daydreamer."
*Damn it*
Artemis bumps past him with her schoolbooks held to her chest. "My name is Artemis, You've been here for 2 weeks. Learn some names." she says in a friendly manner but yet at the same time, annoyed.
"Yeah... sorry Artemis, I'll get it right next time."
"Make sure you do Daniels, now hurry up we have physics next."
Garth's apartment
04/02/13
7:30am
Rubbing his eyes Garth tries to wake up and with the alarm piercing through his eardrums you would think it would be an easy task to get up and out of bed, but no.
Zap.
Garth, for the 3rd time in the past 2 weeks has destroyed his Alarm clock.
*Again dude? seriously? wake yourself up*
"Pops, I...uh... It happened again! I'm sorry I'll pay for this one!" He groggily shouts to his father through the thin walls of his apartment.
A muffled voice came through the other side of the wall.
"You better kid. Remember what you promised your mother, No powers!"
"yeah... I remember. No powers." Garth mumbled to himself.
Garth managed to climb out of his bed and looked at the mirror that was placed up on his wall near the rooms light-switch. He ran his hands through is short brown hair and then took a step back and opened his hand with his fingers being positioned like a claw. Electricity flickered.
Gotham Academy
02/04/13
8:09am
Garth was walking up the schools drive with earphones in and wearing his favorite maroon jacket. He was also singing along to the music playing in his ears, Not loudly but loud enough that if you were stood next to him you would notice his singing.
Garth notices a tap on his right shoulder, "Singing aloud are we?"
Garth looked to his right to notice a beautiful red head smiling at him, So he smiled back at her.
Garth exclaimed to her with a bright smile, "Yeah, its a habit of mine that I picked up from my mother. But hey at least its not a bad one!" Garth realized that his voice came out louder than expected so he removed his earphones.
The red head laughed at him. "wait a second, my singing isn't bad is it? because then it truly would be a bad habit." He jokingly says
"No no not at all! I think you're singing is great." they both paused for two or three awkward seconds. *This is certainly going to be a good day*
"My name is Barbara by the way. Barbara Gordon."
"As in the commissioner Gordon's daughter?" Garth says excitedly. She nodded
"Oh wow! I'm a huge fan of the whole Bat-people thing, do you think he could introduce me?!"
Barbara looked at Garth quizzingly. "Sorry but you didn't tell me your name"
"Oh right sorry. I always do that" He nervously laughs "My name is Garth Daniels. I recently transferred here all the way from Coast City but I'm originally from England in the UK".
*Maybe a bit too much information there Garthy*
"Well Mr Englishman, It was nice speaking to you but I gotta help my friend Dick in the gymnasium" Barbara began to jog towards the direction of the sports area of Gotham Academy and threw a wave in Garth's direction.
*I've got to remember her name for sure*
Garth entered the school through the front entrance while being crammed into the crowd of students trying to get through in a hurry due to them all missing the bell. On his way to the first lesson of the day (Drama) his mind began to trail off to what happened this morning, The alarm clock situation to be exact. His powers were getting harder to control. He did fling a bolt of electricity while he was half asleep and lets face it for someone who daydreams a lot this can be really bad. Maybe he just needed someone to...
Garth's train of thought is broken as the ground shakes. Many students began to ask what that was, some of the girls screaming.
It happens again. This time it has twice the strength triggering the emergency alarms that are placed around the school to signal an evacuation.
Everyone is now screaming and running to the nearest exit, piling past and over each other only focusing on getting themselves out. Garth pins himself against the wall to see if anyone needs help, unlike a lot of these High-Schoolers he actually wants to help the students who are getting hurt.
"Move I need to get through!" "Get out of my way! I'm more important than you!" "Hurry up man we gotta get going!" These are a few things Garth could hear as everyone was evacuating.
while he was pinning himself against the wall he noticed someone pushing past the crowd by also hugging against the same wall as him. As the person came closer he noticed blonde hair with a very long swaying ponytail which was attached to someone with a very determined look. It was Artemis.
"Daydreamer move out of the way I need to get past!" she exclaimed with a stern voice
"Where are you going Artemis, the evacuation is the opposite direction!" He quizzingly shouted back
They were now standing next to each other. "I'm heading towards the gymnasium, I need to make sure my friends are okay" her stern look could not hide the worry in her eyes. "From what I can tell this wasn't an earthquake but we're being attacked and that the gymnasium is where the ground-shakes originated" she added as Garth wasn't moving.
Garth thinks for a moment about the situation. "I'll help you" he said with a determined twinkle in his eye. Garth grabbed Artemis' wrist to make sure they stay together and began to push past the screaming and confused teenagers.