Chapter 1: The Beginning
"Richard Grayson, pay attention!"
A spiky haired teenager looked up at his fuming English teacher, blinking sleepily behind his dark sunglasses.
"Um, hi", he said. Mrs. Mason threw her hands up in the air in frustration.
'Just go to the principals office"
Rich shrugged and grabbing his backpack, and left the room, calm as could be.
The school's biggest bad boy walked down the hall, the only sound being the squeak of his black sketchers on the tile. Rich wondered idly to himself just how much more trouble he would get in if he left campus instead of facing the vice principal for the fourth time this month. It wouldn't really be worth it anyway, there weren't any good movies playing and he knew better than to go to the square. Rich had learned the hard way that several of his teachers frequented the nearby bakery at lunch, including the hard as nails, fitness obsessed gym instructor. The said teacher, however, gladly let him off that time as long as that word never got around about her snack stop. But Rich kept a Polaroid of her eating a large jelly donut, for blackmail purposes.
He stopped in front of a door that read, Vice Principal. They didn't even need to put a sign. The room spewed evil like cheerleaders spew the word "like". His hands found the doorknob and he entered. Four faces looked up at him. Two of then were a pair of rather scrawny boys. Sam and Joshua Westing, I'm not surprised. Rich thought, the cousins were notorious for botching up very easy pranks, and it was said that they'd seen more of the inside of the principal's waiting room than their classes. That wasn't true, of course, no one was in here as often Rich Grayson. The third was an irritated girl with badly dyed red hair, who was trying to smooth down her extremely short skirt which was probably her reason for being in this den of doom. The last rulebreaker was, to his surprise, none other than his close friend, Garfield Logan, more commonly known as Gar or BB. Rich sat down next to him.
"What are you in for". The dark shaded boy asked
"Roughing the sub" The other teenager said gloomily
"Did you try and convince her that you were an exchange student who didn't speak any English again"
"Nope, not this time. She said my hair" He gestured to his green dyed head, "Was 'disruptive and distracting to the learning process', I argued that I was simply being patriotic, she asked if I was Irish, I replied that it was Lucky Charms' 100th anniversary. She threw me out"
"Nice" Rich remarked dryly
"Yea, maybe it wasn't the best idea." Logan said
"Richard Grayson" The receptionist called
Rich sighed, and opened the second door into the office. Awaiting him inside was a short balding man who reminded him strongly of a shrew. Before he could even sit down, a piece of paper was thrust into his hand.
"What's this?" he asked
"That is my thoughts on your behavior," Vice Principal Rodding said, "I got tired of saying it over and over, now get out of my sight."
"Gladly." Rich said, backing out the door. Back in the waiting room, Rich fetched his backback and wished Gar good luck. The second he left the room, the third period bell rang, and the hall was soon flooded with students.
It was not a good morning for Rachel Roth. Not only had she left her report in her locker, but now the damned thing wouldn't open! No matter how hard she pulled, the lock remained firmly stuck. In a desperate attempt, the dark girl pulled her History Textbook out of her bag and began repetitively bashing the lock with it. That had absolutely no effect whatsoever. Rae grabbed onto the lock and pulling on it with all her strength. At the last minute it gave way and she landed in an undignified heap on the floor. The hall was almost empty now. She grabbed her report out of her locker, slammed it shut, picked up her bookbag, and ran toward her next class. Almost there………. BBRRIINGG. Shit…-take mushrooms. Rae opened the door of room 215 and slipped inside. Mrs. Mason watched her with a beady eye as she walked, or rather slunk, to her seat.
"You are tardy Rachel"
"Yea, I know, my locker got stuck…."
"EXCUSES WILL NOT BE TOLERATED MS. ROTH!"
Whoa, who pissed her off last period.. Rae thought, but what she said was,
"Sorry, I'll make it up somehow.."
"I'm sure you will, IN DETENTION! Rae resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the overdramatic English teacher and nodded.
"Alright", Mrs. Mason said, smoothing down her hair, which was now sticking up wildly around her face. "Back to business, first of all, we have a new student joining us today, and I want all of you, ALL OF YOU." She enunciated, making eye contact with a few choice individuals, "To be very welcoming to her, Kori has been homeschooled all her life and this is her first time in an environment with a large number of children her own age, so in other words, PLAY NICE."
Mrs. Mason poked her head out the door and said something inaudible to her class, but Rae guessed it was something along the lines of "come on in" because when she pulled back a girl entered the room. She looked to be of a possible Irish descent with a mass of rich red hair and a few freckles. "Kori" had wide green eyes and practically exuded cheerfulness.
"Say 'hi' Class" Mrs. Mason prompted. A mumbled chorus of unenthusiastic "hi"s rose from the students. "Okay! Mrs. Mason said, sounding WAY too cheerful, "Now that we're all acquainted, I'll be needing some one to show Kori the ropes, so, who's up for it"
Silence…
"Um, ok, then I'll just have to pick someone, so how bout… wait! I have an idea, Rachel, you show Kori around, and I won't give you detention!"
"I'd really rather…"
"So now that's settled, please turn in your essays from last week"
Kori slid in to the empty seat next to Rae.
"Hello new friend!"
Rae hit her head against the desk. She was so doomed…
