Megan Morse stood awkwardly by some random tables in a corner, nervously fingering her close-cropped red hair, a very recent change from the shoulder length hair she'd had last week and for most of her life. It wasn't like she was some wallflower. If anything she was usually among those considered the lives of the party.
But this of course wasn't exactly her party. The party in question is the wedding of Jade Nguyen and Roy Harper, Jade being the elder sister of Artemis Crock, the first friend Megan made when she came to America five years ago. That's right, came to America. Five years ago.
You see, her mother was the American Marie Logan, a then teenage one-hit wonder actress who played the titular character on the less than popular tv show "Hello Megan", who went to Bialya to do volunteer work, her agent having told her it would be good PR. While there, she met Megan's father, a Bialyian man named M'ark M'orzz.
The two had the typical "famous girl meets humble boy, humble boy makes famous girl realize how shallow she's been, famous girl falls in love with humble boy and boy vice versa" story, marrying and having M'gann not long after. However, Biaylia, being under the rule of the tyrannical Beatriz, AKA Queen Bee, was often caught in the middle of some political coup against her that was bound to fail, and still is.
M'ark, eight year old M'gann and Marie, pregnant with M'gann's younger brother Garfield at the time, snuck into the more peaceful neighboring country of Qurac. M'ark, tired of the fighting and hate that he had witnessed for most of his life, renamed himself and M'gann simply Mark and Megan Logan, and opened the Logan Animal Sanctuary in Qurac along with his wife and children.
And it's not that M'gann didn't enjoy all the experiences she was privy to: it was just that she was always curious about American culture, having based herself from watching her mother's performance on "Hello Megan" and her parents having only returned to the states for the most dire of circumstances, and when they did they usually left their children in the care of family friend John Jones, Uncle J'onn to M'gann and Garfield.
Of course it didn't help that her strong resemblance to her red-haired, fair-skinned mother often made her a target for the ridicule of her Quraci schoolmates.
Five years earlier however, the past caught up with the Logan's in the form of Bialyian drones, who bombed the sanctuary and caused Mark's death, and very nearly Garfield's. Afterwards, M'gann fought with her mother, begging to be allowed to see America, though now it was to escape the pain of losing her beloved father. Marie refused, not wanting to lose her daughter as well.
Angered, M'gann ran away in the dead of night, talked her way onto a plane, and somehow made her way into the states, specifically Chicago, the home of Uncle J'onn. Though understandably surprised, John welcomed M'gann, but because his work often took him away from home, he enrolled M'gann in a private boarding school, Gotham Academy, in Gotham City as Megan Morse, in honor of her father. And that is where Artemis Crock comes into play.
Artemis was one of the students who did not live on the campus because she lived in Gotham City. She was also there on scholarship, something that caused a lot of the rich kids to look down on her. They looked down on M'gann too, but for other reasons. Among them, her always chipper attitude, her rather old school appearance and her strange name, but mostly for not coming from money.
Like they did the day Artemis and M'gann officially met. The rich girls had her cornered in the lunch room (scuse me, the "dining hall"), telling her how pathetic she was, to go back to her country, America for Americans, and everything else imaginable. It doesn't take much imagination for the cruelty of teenage girls.
And M'gann just stood there, trying not to cry, when someone tapped on the shoulder of the ringleader. The girl turned and was met with a punch to the nose, a punch that was enforced with ringed fingers and toughened knuckles.
The punch came from Artemis Crock, the tough looking blonde M'gann only knew from the few classes they shared, who usually hung out with Barbara Gordon, Zatanna Zatara, Raquel "Rocket" Ervin, and Bette Kane, some of the other not rich students, Bette being the exception, the girl who refused to comply with dress code rules, with most rules, wearing multiple rings and bracelets, wearing her skirt too short, etc.
Anyway, when she punched the girl, the usual hell broke loose. The rich girls started screaming, the rich boys chanted "cat fight", teachers jumped in to prevent anything worse and all three girls were taken to the administrators office. And M'gann tried to defend Artemis, saying how she had defended her, the school apparently enforced a "no tolerance" policy, though M'Gann got the feeling it wouldn't be so enforced if she had been on the receiving end of the punch.
Artemis was suspended for two weeks. M'Gann remained on the low-end of the popularity scale, though no bothered her as much as they had before. When Artemis finally came back to school, she walked right up to her school locker.
"I heard you tried to keep me from being suspended. Thanks."
M'Gann blushed, and tried to brush it off. "Well, I mean, I kinda owed you."
Artemis looked confused for a minute, and then it hit her. "Oh! That bitch screwing with you? Forget it. Tell you the truth, I'd take any reason to pop that little trick."
M'gann blushed even harder. Then Artemis, seeing her friends down the hall, threw one arm around M'gann's shoulders and towed her with her to greet them. It became an unspoken agreement between the girls that "Megan" was a member of their little gang, inviting her to sit with them at lunch, hang out after school, etc. After that, no one bothered M'Gann period for fear of Artemis' wrath.
It wasn't that she was a bully like the aforementioned rich girls. It was just that Artemis came off as a girl who was completely unafraid of others, always ready with a quick and witty comeback, and when it came to her friends she was less ready to use her words and more ready to use her fists, and unlike most of the rich kids, she knew how, having grown up in the slums of Gotham. Only those closest to her knew that that was not the case. Far from it.
And it went like that until graduation, after which M'gann went to college in Happy Harbor Rhode Island, alway keeping in touch with her friends and her mother and brother over in Qurac. At least, until five months ago, when Marie died in a vehicle accident that Garfield witnessed. Devastated, M'Gann returned home to bury her mother and bring her traumatized brother back, now his legal guardian.
Last week, for some reason even she didn't really understand, she found herself staring at herself in her bathroom mirror, scissors in her hand and most of her once shoulder-length hair gathered in the sink.
Right now though, she found herself wondering when it would be polite enough to leave so she could go home to Garfield. I hope it's soon, she thought, feeling guilty that she dumped her brother on some of his school friends, Tim Drake and Bart Allen.
"Hey girl!" That's Rocket, pushing her way though the crowd, a death grip on the wrist of a broad-shouldered man with black hair and blue eyes. M'gann knew him as Conner Kent, one of the groomsmen. Rocket pushes him at her, almost making him fall, pointing to him and saying "You. Dance with her," before disappearing into the crowd once again.
M'Gann blushes at her friends usual boldness, helping Conner right himself. "I'm sorry about her. She just... you know that thing in your brain that tells you what to and what not to say? She doesn't really have one of those."
Conner gives her the smallest of smiles, straightening his jacket. "It's fine. It sounds familiar."
M'Gann laughs slightly, stopping when he looks her in the face. An awkward minute passes with them just standing before Conner breaks it by saying "So, shall we..." leaving it at that, making it plain to M'Gann that she's more than free to turn him down. For some reason, it endears him to her. "I'd love to."