Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or West Side Story. They belong to the appropriate parties.
"Remind me why I let you drag me here," Artemis Crock grumbles as she follows her best friend, Zatanna into the bright blue tacky bleachers of the Happy Harbor High Track Arena.
"I couldn't miss it," The raven-haired girl states matter-of-factly. "It's Dick's first game, and he wants us to be here. I mean, it's not like his dad has time to come here himself," It's true; his guardian, whom the girls are always forgetting is not his dad, Bruce Wayne, is always too busy to attend a measly high school track meet. "See, there he is now." She points to a spot just beyond the bleachers, where the blonde can see a skinny kid in shorts stretching with his teammates. Zatanna waves her hands around wildly to get his attention. He waves back politely.
"Hey, guys," A redhead with jeans and a Gotham Academy sweatshirt (it's October and getting pretty cold in Connecticut) slides into the seat next to Artemis, her hands full of snacks. "I got the food," She announces.
"Good to see you too, Barbara," Artemis greets her friend while Zatanna reaches over her to grab some popcorn.
"We've known each other, what, a year? I've told you, call me Babs. Barbara is my eighty year old Grandmother," She insists.
"It doesn't feel right," She admits. "Besides, Babs is Dick's name for you."
It'll happen someday, I guess," She sighs. "Oh, well. So where is Dickie?"
"Down there," Zatanna replies, "stretching with the other track dumb-asses."
"Zatanna," Artemis warns, elbowing her friend gently.
"What?" Zatanna asks. "We all know it's true. The only reason Dick made it is because the coach won't have to pick a completely new team if they all fail. Now sh, the meet is starting." She's right, for as soon as she stops speaking, they hear a gunshot and the starting runners are off. Dick isn't currently competing, but a sophomore named Cameron is and sticks his leg out slightly in front of the leading Happy Harbor runner, a redhead with the word "West" on the back of his jersey. He trips, and Cameron wins. The crowd from Gotham Academy goes wild. However, Artemis is skeptical.
"Did you guys see that?" She inquired. "Cameron totally just tripped that guy in the front."
"Who cares?" Zatanna says. "We won!" Barbara and her cheer wildly but the blonde just frowns. She sees the runner who was knocked over howling in pain. If she had to guess, she'd say he had a twisted ankle. She grimaces. Twisted ankles don't feel too good, she knows from experience. She tries to lose herself in the races, long jumps, and hurdles because it's the easiest thing to do (after all, losing oneself in a game is better than facing reality) and soon, she does.
Eventually, the extra-large drinks Barbara brought get to her and she excuses herself to go the restroom. When she finishes her business and is walking back to the stands, she sees the redhead who got hurt by Cameron. He's sitting against a pole, holding a bag of ice to his ankle.
"Ouch," She observes.
"Pretty much," He says.
"I'm sorry he did that to you. Cameron's just a jerk," She tells him.
"That seems like the case," He agrees. "Aren't you going to get in trouble with your friends for talking to someone from Happy Harbor?"
"Maybe," She shrugs. "But I don't really care what my friends think."
"Well, in the case, have a seat," He takes a break from icing his foot to pat the glazed concrete beside him. "It's totally boring here, anyway." He sticks out a hand. "I'm Wally."
She shakes it. "Artemis." She sits down next to him, figuring the only other option is to watch teenage boys in tight shorts run around in circles. "So, how long have you been in Track and Field?"
"Since I was a freshman. So, this is my third year on varsity,"
"You've been on the varsity team for three years?" Artemis is impressed. She's only been on the soccer team for two years, and she's one of the best (and youngest) players.
"Yep, been the star runner ever since," He shrugs. "Not that I'm bragging or anything. I was trained by the best."
"And the best would be…" She prompts.
"Barry Allen, my uncle. Heard of him?"
Artemis looks at him, his identity finally dawning on her. "Your uncle is Barry Allen?As in the three time Olympic champion?" Didn't Barbara say something about that? "Must be in the genes." She figures.
"Nah. Uncle Barry is my uncle by marriage. No blood relation. So," he says. "You do any sports?"
Artemis shrugs. "I play soccer for the school, but on my own, it's all about the archery. My dad taught me before, he, um, left," She finishes lamely.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's better now that he's gone," She gulps and tries to change the subject. "So, you have any siblings?"
"Nope. You?"
"One sister. Older." Artemis answers, avoiding going too deep in the subject. Despite the fact that her sister left over five years ago, Jade is still a sore subject for her.
"Oh. Cool." A comfortable silence falls between the two. "So, what does your mom do? She must have a pretty good job if you go to Gotham Academy,"
"Actually, I go there on scholarship," Artemis answers, raising an eyebrow. "I had a friend who convinced his guardian to give me a free ride,"
"Pretty good friend you got there," He observes. "Is he your boyfriend?"
"Oh God, no," She fake shudders. "Dick is three years younger and a scrawny little thing."
"Dick Grayson?" He asks.
Artemis nods. "How do you know him?"
He shrugs. "We attended Middle School Together. We were pretty good friends when he was in sixth and I was in seventh. But now that he's at Gotham and I'm at Happy Harbor…"
"The rivalry," They finish in unison.
"Yeah, it sucks," He says." If my friends were to find out that I was hanging out with someone from Gotham… well, it would be a miracle if I came home without a black eye."
"True, true," She agrees, glancing down at her watch. "Whoa. I've been gone for a long time. My friends are probably freaking out about where I am." She stands up and dusts herself off. "Goodbye, Wally." She starts down the hallway.
"I'll see you around," He suggests from behind her.
Artemis turns around quick enough to grin and wink. "Maybe," She says.
"Where were you?" Barbara demands as soon as the blonde gets back to her seat. "We were worried sick! We almost called the police to tell them you had been kidnapped!'
"You were not," Artemis says calmly. "You wouldn't risk letting your dad know that you were in Happy Harbor."
"Well, maybe not," She says hesitantly. "But still. Where wereyou?"
"My mom called," She lies. "She wanted to know where I was, when I was coming home, et cetera, et cetera. You know the drill."
"Your mom is just okay with the fact that you're at a random high school a state over?" Zatanna, taking a break from cheering on a racing Dick, asks.
"Well, yeah. It's only a few minutes from the Connecticut- Rhode Island border," Artemis defends. "Besides, my mom is an ex-con. As long as I'm not smoking pot behind an abandoned warehouse or breaking and entering, she's fine."
"Oh ye— is that Dick, in the front?" Zatanna asks. "Holy crap, it is!"
The three friends realize she is right- Dick is leading the race, several feet ahead of Cameron.
"He's still circus boy," Babs says. "Must've built up strong legs from running from all of those lions."
At some point after the long-distance set, Zatanna consumes some unknown amount of beer and gets blackout drunk.
"I don't know here she got all that alcohol," Barbara says. "But I have to get her home. Her dad would freak if I let her stay here any longer. Sorry I have to cut our night short."
"Oh, it's no problem. You guys go. I'll find some way to get home," Artemis reassures her friend.
"Really?" The red head asks. "Thanks. Dick would totally freak if he saw we abandoned him."
"It's fine." She says. "Make sure she gets home safe."
"Oh, I will. Text you when we get to her dad's house," The redhead promises.
And with that she's gone.
Well, Artemis thinks. There goes my ride.
In the end, Dick wins for his track team and goes home in the team bus (a luxurious Charter, funded by the ridiculously wealthy Gotham Academy PTA), a hero in the eyes of his teammates, leaving a bunch of fuming athletes in tiny shorts. Artemis figures she'd better leave before the losing team figures out she's one of themand gives her a black eye.
She remembers her first day at Gotham Academy, when she'd found out about the extreme rivalry between the schools' track teams. She'd been sitting with the two girls who had been showing her around, Bette Kane and Barbara Gordon, when she said something about her best friends, Megan and Conner, going to Happy Harbor when Bette said, "I wouldn't go advertising that, if I were you."
Artemis asked why.
"There's this huge rivalry between the two track teams. Every year, when we go against each other at the championship, at least one person gets molested," Barbara said while chewing on a celery stick.
"She would know," Bette informed her. "Her boyfriend takes it upon himself to stop those incidents."
"Dick's not my boyfriend," She grumbled. Bette mouthed the word yetto Artemis.
The archer cleared her throat. "So why is the rivalry between track teams? Why not football or something?"
"Our football team sucks," Her liaison explained. "And soccer isn't too great, either. Also, you know Barry Allen?"
Artemis nodded. "'The Flash?' Yeah, I'm familiar."
"Well, his nephew is on the track team. Cameron Mahkent, who's on our team, is Joar Mahkent's son. So, because of that, we're enemies."
"That's pretty irrational," Artemis noted.
"Yeah," Bette said, sighing. "But that's high school."
Artemis hasn't been jumped yet, but she's not too eager to wait and see.
She is preparing herself for the long and bitterly cold walk home when a red Ford pick-up truck pulls alongside her. Expecting the worst, she readies herself to run when the window rolls down and it's Wally.
"Guess I saw you sooner than I thought," He says.
"Yeah," She replies, still looking forward.
"So, what are you going to do, walk home?" He asks.
"That was the plan," She tells him.
"Oh. Well-" He draws out the word, "I could drive you."
She looks at him incredulously. "Why should I let you,an almost complete stranger, drive me home to the bad part of Gotham in the middle of the night?"
He shrugs. "I don't care," He pops open the passenger sea door. "Come on. Hop in."
"This is beginning to closely resemble a horror movie," Artemis mumbles, but climbs in anyway. "Just drive. I'll give you directions when we get closer."
The drive there is long, quiet, and uncomfortable. They finally see indication that are entering the City (a large green sign that says "Welcome to sunny Gotham!" that never ceases to make Artemis scoff) when the clock on Wally's dashboard changes to twelve thirty am, just as the criminals are crawling out of their holes. It doesn't worry Artemis too much, though, because she's been through enough Gotham midnights. Besides, they know her as "Lawrence's kid" and are more likely to offer her drugs than to jump her.
She gives Wally careful instructions to her street and says when they reach a bus stop a few blocks away from her house," You can stop here."
"Are you sure?" He asks, raising an eyebrow. "It doesn't look like the safest part of town."
"I'll be alright," She reassures him. After hesitating a moment, she says, "Give me your hand."
"What? Why?"
"My number," She explains. "You can text me and we'll meet up sometime." She bids him farewell and watches as he waves and turns his truck around. As soon as the back of the Ford pick-up disappears into the thick night air, she walks to her house, grinning as she does so.
And that's a wrap of Chapter One!
I hope you enjoyed this; I know I really loved writing it.
I'm welcome to any constructive criticism you have to offer.
I'll probably update in two to three weeks; I'm going on vacation soon and won't have access to a computer. After that, though, I'll update more regularly.
2,064, baby! That's the biggest chapter I've ever written!
Until Next Time,
Caroline