It was just a typical night at the cave. Wally, Artemis, and Robin were sitting on the barstools by the counter doing their homework while Kaldur was sitting on the couch reading a book and M'gann was making dinner. No one had seen Connor but they could hear the echoes of the punching bag in the training room. A few minutes later the angry clone came marching silently into the living room, his face set in its usual scowl.
"Hey Supey, where ya been?" Wally questioned and just about every single face in the room paled, the entire team knew it was a bad idea to ask Connor about why he was angry, the only one who ever dared to do that was M'gann and even she had the sense to wait until he had cooled down.
"Training" Connor answered while glancing over his shoulder, a warning tone lacing his voice.
Unfortunately Wally did not pick up on this warning "I thought Black Canary was gone for the day?" He asked, somehow completely unaware of the clone's anger until he fully turned around and faced the young speedster.
Crap he looks mad Wally thought to himself wait a min-stupid! That annoying sound was him hitting the punching bag! I am so dead the young speedster continued to think but that was when Connor turned back towards the couch.
"She is but some of us actually have problems in our lives and need to hit something" he said and Wally gritted his teeth in response, he may not always be the best at reading between the lines but that one he caught loud and clear.
Connor was referring to his home, more specifically to his father. No doubt Connor had a run in with Superman at some point today, and now when it was Wally of all people who was stupid enough to ask him where he'd been he just couldn't help but point out that he doesn't have any huge problems at home, but he has no idea.
Everyone stared, waiting for Wally to say something, though none of them thought he actually would.
"You're not the only one with problems Connor," he said, a raging fire forming in his green eyes as he stood up.
Connor turned back around "I know, but don't you even pretend-" he began but Wally cut him off.
"I won't" he said "I'm sorry that you have issues with your father, really I am. It's not right the way that he ignores you and I'm not going to stand here and pretend that I know what that feels like because I don't. But if you think my civilian life is perfect than you're dead wrong." He said in a deadly voice, which made the other's wonder what exactly went on in Wally's home life.
"But Wally, your parents love you" M'gann said
"It's not my parents," he admitted "and unlike most of your problems it doesn't go away when I come here." He said, looking around at the group. "You all have a time where you can ignore whatever problems you have, you can put on a mask and pretend to be somebody else, I can't" he confessed before reaching for his homework and handing it to Artemis.
The blond archer was completely confused by whatever was happening but she took Wally's paper from him, unsure of why he wanted her to take it in the first place.
"How old were you when you learned this?" He asked, still confused Artemis glanced over the paper and her brow furrowed even more.
"Twelve" she said, the homework was a simple geometry assignment, but it was using an extremely basic method that she had been taught back in seventh grade, how was Wally only learning it now?
"Where do you guys go when you get school? After homeroom where do you go?" Wally questioned his team, by this point all eyes were on him as his frustration and other feelings he often kept hidden came bubbling back to the surface.
"I have a history class" M'gann timidly offered, Wally nodded and when it became clear that no one else was going to give him an answer he decided that now was the time.
"Well let me tell you where I go" he began "after homeroom I go off to my geometry class for special needs kids, and no it's not one of those student assisting things, I'm one of the kids." He confessed. "It's not the kids with severe needs, it's the ones who can blend in and pretend that they're just like everybody else, until you ask them to learn." He began to explain, "fourth period I have special needs English and fifth period is my support class, a study hall all the kids like me are required to take," he continued and for a minute the room was quiet. No one had expected any of this but truthfully no one understood the problem. None of them ever suspected Wally had any mental issues so obviously they were relatively minor, and even so none of them could see how needing a little extra help in school was a problem.
"No offence Wally but I don't see how being dyslexic effects anything that you do here apart from reading the occasional road signs" Artemis said to him but the instant he looked at her, not like he was mad or offend but just irritated, she suddenly felt guilty.
"Ok first off I'm not dyslexic, believe it or not there's actually more than one type of learning disorder in existence. I have APD, second just because it's called a learning disorder doesn't mean it goes away when I leave school," he told mainly her. "I'm not going to bore you guys with details, mainly because I don't even know half of them. But it affects my ability to listen, it's nothing to do with my ears, I hear everything, but my brain only processes about every other word." He began and suddenly his eyes showed a renewed anger, something inside of him had snapped. "I've always been behind in school, I was always to slow. Flash wasn't my favorite hero because he was the closest to where I live; it was because he was fast. When I found out that Flash is my Uncle Barry part of me was ecstatic, but part of me was humiliated" He admitted, "I mean I had to have been a huge embarrassment! He's the fastest man alive and he got stuck with the slowest boy on earth as a nephew! I became Kid Flash because I thought if I was lucky the powers would speed up the processing in my brain, and if they didn't I could at least prove I'm not a screw up!" Now he was shouting, "my parents were both valedictorians in high school and they got a son who ended up three years behind in math, four in social studies, and one in English!" Suddenly he stopped, as if he were only now realizing how angry he had gotten and it was clear to the group that he didn't mean to tell them this much.
Clearing his throat he turned back to Connor "look I know my problems are nothing like yours, but you have one thing I never will, hope. As time goes on Superman might come around, you might end up on better terms with him and be able to forget it ever affected you. But me, my head isn't hooked up right. I was born like this and I'm going to die like this, I can learn to hide it but no matter what it will always be here, I will always be to slow," he solemnly admitted.
Wally was alone in his room that night, his room at home, so he was not expecting it at all when he heard a knock on his door and answered it to Artemis.
"Oh, hey Artemis. What are you doing here?" He questioned and she smirked at his obvious confusion.
"Connor says he's sorry, none of us knew," she told him and his face fell in embarrassment.
"Oh that, yeah sorry I didn't mean to make such a big deal." He admitted but Artemis smiled softly.
"I'm glad you did," she told him.
"Huh?" He asked, unsure if he had heard right.
"We've all got our sob stories Wally, every single one of us. But so far you seem to be the only one who can accept it." She began and Wally perked up a bit, though he wondered if he had heard her right. "Robin told me he's been in this game since he was nine, I can only imagine how he ended up like that. M'gann says that she'd pick us over her family on Mars any day, Aqualad told me his dad used to work for Black Manta…" she trailed off before she realized she had arrived at herself "and for now let's just say that my parents are separated" she told him, being as vague as she could while still being honest. "As much as we hate to admit it our battle scars all show, you can tell we've had some issues because we're still trying to get away from it, but you've accepted that you can't" she finished and Wally shrugged.
"My powers didn't help so what else can I do?" He asked rhetorically but Artemis smirked.
"I hope that wasn't the only reason you experimented on yourself because you have nothing to prove, not to me, ok?" She said and Wally smiled gratefully.
Hey so i know that this may not be the best one-shot i've ever done and there's got to be some OOC stuff in here but I really wanted to write this because my own learning disability has been bothering me lately and Wally just seemed like perfect character for this. Also I want to dedicate this one-shot to all people, especially kids, with disabilities which can't be seen. Everyday these people are called "stupid" because they "don't have common sense" when in reality we're trying our hardest to understand. There are many different learning disorders and all of them are permanent, no matter how much help we receive we can only get better at hiding it, we can never actually get better. If you have any type of disorder/disability this story is dedicated to you.