.REVISED VERSION.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, whose characters are the basis of the story.
"Bittersweet refers to a combination of the standard tastes of sweetness and bitterness, and is often used as a metaphor for experiences which have binary elements of happiness and sadness, or pleasure and pain."
- Wikipedia
I walked.
I did a lot of walking. Everywhere I went, I walked. I had a car, of course, but that doesn't mean I have to use it. In fact, I have two cars. Having an important businessman for a foster parent has it's perks.
Walking just gives a better experience. The extra exercise gained from it left a feeling of satisfaction, where as sitting in a car using minimal amounts of effort felt like such lassitude and disappointing. Making an effort was much more exhilarating than the feeling of wind blowing through your hair.
Although, I believe the real reason I liked all of this was for the feeling of doing something right. I made mistakes, like everyone else did, of course, but I made much more than the average person. Or at least I believed so.
That is why I leave for school so early every morning. Being late would be a failure, so I always left at 7am. School started at 8, and it took half an hour of walking to get there.
I guess you could call me a bit of an overachiever.
Why would you want to be otherwise, though? Living a life of just getting by does not seem to be very rewarding. Although, neither does mine.
I arrived to school at 7:30, of course. I knew Raven was probably here already, as she came to the school early everyday so she could read in the library in peace. Her parents had been fighting more than usual as of late, apparently, but this was a secret. Raven had only told Victor and I, for Garfield would obviously tell, and she had always been distrustful of Tara.
I walked up to the building and placed my ID card into the scanner, resulting in the front door becoming unlocked. I walked towards the library and found Raven sitting comfortably curled up on one of the couches, absorbed in a book of French literature.
"Hey," I greeted her, leaning over the back of the couch. She continued reading to the bottom of the page and placing her bookmark inside before addressing me.
"Hey," she replied, glancing up at me, then looking towards the window. Outside the sky was gray and ominous, unusual for this time of year in a city like this. "You walked in that? It looks like the clouds are about to burst."
"I was willing to take the risk. Temperature wise, it's beautiful out. It's not hot like it's been for the past two weeks." I walked around the couch and sat beside her, picking up her book and examining it. She shot me a look and grabbed it back. Although we were best friends, Raven considered me foolish and irresponsible when it came to touching her things, fearing I would damage them. She claimed that her feelings were justified as I had once dropped one of her things in mud while exploring some nearby woods with Garfield and Tara. She seemed to forget that this incident had occured in the fifth grade, thus she would not let it go.
Raven was...different. She mostly kept to herself, but was more open with Victor, Garfield, Tara, and I, after having grown up with us. I was the last to meet her, but apparently she had been the same then that she is now--monotone, intellectual, reserved. Raven wasn't weird, though. She was beautiful, with deep blue eyes and violet hair that normally would break the dress code if purple hadn't been one of our school colors. She had a curvy body, but covered herself mostly with larger clothes to avoid male attention to her backside. Right now her tartan uniform skirt and loose black long sleaved off the shoulders shirt were helping to accomplish that. She wasn't awkward or unathletic, but she wasn't on any sports teams, which prevented her from reaching her potential. And contrary to popular belief, she didn't like death metal or "Satan-worshiping" music, but classical. Most people shied away from her due to thinking that she was a wiccan and practiced voodoo on them, and in a way I felt bad for her. I think she liked her mysterious impression on people, though. It kept them away from her.
"'Sup, guys?"
I turned around and saw Victor, giving him a wave.
"Why are you here so early?" I asked.
"Football meeting. Coach said that having meetings after school takes up valuable practice time, so we're having them before school now," he answered. I nodded my head at him in understanding. He was wearing his uniform, which meant there would be a game today. Besides purple hair, that was another exception in our school's dress code. For a private school, it wasn't very strict.
I didn't go to the most expensive school in the city, even though I could. Bruce, my foster farther, had insisted on it, but I wanted to live a normal life. He wouldn't let me go to public school, so we both settled on this.
"It's 7:50," I announced as I looked down at my watch. "We should head to our lockers."
I drummed my fingers on my desk impatiently waiting for homeroom to begin. Of course I had been early. Mostly everyone had arrived by now, considering the bell was about to ring, but of course the seat to my left was still empty. The bell rang, and soon after the owner of that seat came scampering in.
"You're late!" Madame Rouge exclaimed in her French accent. "That is your third late this marking period, Mr. Logan. You better watch yourself."
"Alright, alright ma'am," he replied, slumping down into his chair.
"Nice goin', Gar," I commented, and he sighed.
"Well, I was helping Tara because--"
"Quiet!" Madame Rouge reprimanded. We weren't allowed to talk during announcements. Garfield lowered his voice to a whisper.
"I was helping Tara because her locker was stuck, so I used my manly man muscles to pry it open." He paired this statement with a flew of his arm "muscle."
Garfield was a scrawny boy, no taller than 5'6", and an incredibly fast runner. He had an affinity for animals and had once dyed his blonde hair green. But the most prominent feature about Garfield was his unconditional love for Tara. They grew up next door together, and when they were younger they would hang out everyday after they each got back from their different schools. Garfield went to catholic school, where Tara had gone to public. Tara only goes to private school now because her godfather, whom she lives with, is a gym teacher here.
Ever since I met Garfield, he claimed that he would marry Tara, his love for her spanning back to his childhood. Tara's feelings are ambiguous, as she sometimes hints that she feels something for him, but at other times she can be outrageously mean to him. She wasn't always, but when she went to middle school, she became friends with the wrong crowd of people, and dating the "bad boys". Her recklessness was breaking his heart, we all knew, but he wouldn't talk about it or show it. He avoided any conversation of Tara and her other friends, how much they drank together, and which one we wondered took her virginity. She would never tell, but Garfield has implied that he knows. That probably also broke his heart.
I heard the sound of the door opening and closing, so I looked up in curiosity. A girl walked in, handing a note to Madame Rouge, whom she then briefly conversed with. I had never seen the girl before in the city, but she was one of the most striking girls I had ever seen. She had the body of a model, with long, tan legs and a diminutive waist. While Raven's weight was mostly carried most of her weight in her bottom half, this girl's was distributed more evenly, with a slight bit more mass in her chest than her hips. Her hair was exotically red, verging on the possibility of being unnatural, although her roots and eyebrows told otherwise.
The new girl slid into the desk to my right, and Gar leaned over across my desk, stretching his hand out to her.
"Well hello pretty lady, I'm Gar. What might your name be?" He topped off his question with a wink, and I rolled my eyes at him. The new girl giggled lightly at his antics and shook his hand fiercly. His eyes widened slightly at her strength.
"Why thank you, friend," she said with a smile. "My name is Kori Anders." Gar grinned. I could tell how his mind was working at the moment. 'She already considers me a friend, how fast do you think I can get in her pants?' he would most likely say. Gar's flirtatious behaviour normally got him in trouble, usually ending with girls walking off from his trying to hard. I guess Kori was too nice.
"Way to be rude man, introduce yourself to the lady," Gar insisted, nudging me in the side with his elbow.
"Oh, yeah, right. Hi Kori, I'm Richard," I greeted her, also stretching out my hand. She shook my hand with just as much enthusiasm as she had to Garfield. "Man...you're a lot stronger than you look." She got slightly flushed and smiled at me.
"You truely believe so?" she asked. Her large emerald eyes looked at me hopefully.
"Definitely." I smiled back at her. "So, where do you come from?" After I asked this, I realized I said it almost...suavely. Garfield looked at me curiously before smirking and leaning back in his seat. He thought I was interested. Of course I wasn't, I never was interested. I didn't have time for girls. But I guess I was, in a way, trying to impress Kori. Of course, it was only to prevent her thinking negatively of me, which would be considered a failure. And that was not an option anymore.
"I hail from the city of Florence, in Italy. I presume that this Jump City is where you come from?" I nodded.
"Sorta. I moved here when I was eight."
"Where did you live before that?" Her intentions were innocent, so I covered up my discomfort. She didn't know; I couldn't blame her.
"I moved around a lot." It wasn't a lie.
"I also moved quite a bit back when I lived in Europe. My father is businessman, so now we are here so he can establish a new branch of his company in America." We already had two things in common. Well, sort of.
The bell rang signaling the end of homeroom, and Madame Rouge walked around to the front of her desk and began speaking.
"Bonjour classe," she greeted us in French, and we all greeted her back. The class was French III, a class of mostly juniors, with occasional sophomores and seniors. Gar was the exception, as he took an exam to be placed higher up due to his high French knowledge after helping Tara with her homework last year. I think he knew the language even better than she did now.
Madame Rouge announced to us that today we would be starting a project, based on chapter two in the book, and that we would have partners, assigned by her. Afterwards, a collective sigh filled the room. She quickly pointed out the groups, which were selected by her simply pointing to people near each other and declaring them partners. Due to her being next to me, Kori ended up being my partner.
We turned our desks together and I opened my book to the chapter, rambling off my thoughts.
"So...we have to do an oral presentation explaining what we like to wear. I was thinking maybe we could do a conversation explaining us going shopping and picking out what we want. How does that sound?" She agreed, and we quickly got to work, planning for about ten minutes before Kori strayed off topic, distracted by her schedule.
"Richard, I am...quite confused. My schedule says that my next class is located in room number 416. Certainly there cannot be an entire 416 rooms in this one building." I smiled at how clueless she was. It was kind of cute, but I shoved that thought to the back of my mind. I had to ignore my attraction to her outstanding beauty. It was clouding my judgment. I knew barely anything of this girl. For all I knew, her innocence and kindness could all be an act, and deep down she could be a ruthless man-eater. But I couldn't judge just yet.
"Oh, definitely not. Different hallways are just indicated by having different values of 100s, that's all. I can show you."
"That would be greatly appreciated." She smiled at me gratefully. I had to stop myself. I was trying to impress her again, trying to look good.
But I guess that was better than the opposing view. I could not let that become an option.
Yes, I am alive, and I'm rewriting all earlier chapters to add more maturity, character accuracy + continuity, and writing quality. There will be plot line changes, which may later alter the story, so it is important to read the altered chapters to understand what is happening when future chapters are released. At some points, old and new chapters may not make sense together, I'm sorry, but it is necessary for the story to be of decent quality. Let's call the first version the rough draft, as I wrote this at the age of like, fourteen lol.
Revisions and new future chapters will only be done with fan support. If there is none, the story's staying as is, so no, you will not find out how Richard and Kori eventually end up. Give me reviews so you can know the ending :]]
Hopefully I will get the revisions done pretty fast. ((I wrote this in one sitting, and I will probably come back and change it multiple times. I'm always iffy about writing beginnings.))
