So I forgot to make this clear before, but Mandy is Blackfire. Blackfire's alien name is Komand'r and I didn't want to have Komi and Kori so I used Mandy for her instead. There will be some others names mentioned in this chapter especially so if anyone gets confused just ask 8)
Disclaimer: Wish I did, but I don't own Teen Titans
OoO
First Day (Stereotypical Ways)
Rachel
Schools are all the same. Divided into different cliques, groups of the same tastes. Cheerleaders, jocks, skaters, posers, the list goes on and on. Out of all the schools I've gone to, nothing has ever been different, they're all the same.
Or, so I thought.
Turns out a country high school with 300 kids spread across four grades is a lot different to the normal, cliché high schools that are in books and movies. Jump High, in this shitty town that was only allowed four letters of the alphabet, is completely different to all those other schools.
Everyone here knows each other. There are no set groups. Sure, people have their own circle of friends, but those circles mingle here. Even people in separate years can have a conversation about anything. New students are welcomed right away.
Which, contrary to what a lot of people would think, is a huge problem for me.
"Hey Rae!" Rachel suppressed a sigh of annoyance as she walked through the office doors. "Hey Rachel, wait up!" She turned around and found Garfield Dayton barely an inch away from her. He grinned and took a step backwards.
"I thought I already told you that I don't want your help making friends," Rachel told him as she walked towards the halls. Her eyes skimmed along the walls at the lockers, looking for her number.
"I'm not going to help you make friends," Gar shrugged, "I'll just be your friend." Rachel rolled her eyes and kept looking for her number.
"I don't need you to be my friend," she muttered.
"Nah, but you want me to." Rachel kept her eyes away. Gar noticed them flitting around and grinned. "What number?"
"I don't need your help."
"So you'd prefer to be late for class and get a detention on your first day rather than let me help you find you locker?" Gar asked, "Just tell me the number."
Rachel sighed, "One hundred and thirty eight," she muttered. Gar thought for a moment, before nodding and pulling Rachel off to the right.
It wasn't long before she was standing in front of the locker labelled '138'. She raised an eyebrow at Garfield before unlocking the door. "You found that awfully quick," she murmured to him as she started piling her books inside.
"Yeah, I knew the person who used to own it. Knew them pretty well," he rubbed the back of his neck and waved to some other people in the hall. A couple of tall, jock-like guys came up and gave him hi fives as they walked past. To Rachel, it seemed like he knew a lot of the people in the school very well.
"How popular are you?" Rachel asked softly, as she watched the guys walk down the hall.
"I wouldn't say popular," Gar said, "Everyone pretty much knows everything about each other in this town, and you probably know what people are like when they know you've got money." He looked down the hall, "Some people will do anything to be your friend." He shrugged and grinned at Rachel, "What do you have first?" She was about to open her mouth tell him again that she did not want or need his help when she thought better of it. She passed Gar her schedule and he fished his own out of his pocket. As she looked at them, she saw that they had quite a few classes together, but that was most likely due to the limited number of people in their year.
"So you have language arts first," Gar said and pointed to her left. "Follow the hall to the right then it's the second door on the right. There's photocopies of poems tacked all over the door."
Rachel nodded and started to walk down the hall. Gar smiled after her, "I'll see you round classes then. Maybe at lunch or after school too." But he was shunned as Rachel had turned around and focussed on getting to class.
oOo
Richard unfortunately, had not had the same amount of luck as his sister, and was left to find his locker and first class by himself. Because of this, he was late to class, and although the teacher (a balding, wizened old man who called himself Mr Pots) let him off the hook, Richard was still left with having to sit in the only remaining seat in the class.
As he sat in the spare seat, next to a beautiful redhead, Mr Pots started to speak. "Now as the usual system goes, these will be your seats for the remainder of the term," he said, walking around the room, "so get comfortable."
Richard turned to the girl next to him. "Hey I'm-" A large wrinkly hand slammed down on his desk, causing him to jump. "Name, please." Mr Pots asked, towering over Richard.
"Richard Grayson," he spat out, "sir."
"Grayson. I accept you may be late to class on your first day, but I will not accept you talking and disrupting my class during a lesson." Richard nodded and heard a few sniggers around the class. Mr Pots also heard these sniggers, and immediately directed his attention to those creating them.
Richard felt something brush up against his arm and looked down. A folded piece of paper was resting next to his hand. He opened it and looked at the written message inside.
Pots isn't the teacher to have around if you want a conversation.
The girl in the next seat smiled at him, her green eyes shining. Richard grinned and wrote back.
Wish you told me that earlier.
I'm Kori.
Rich.
This your first day?
Yeah. Only got into town yesterday.
Your parents didn't even give you a chance to settle in?
I live with my adoptive dad. He thought it would be 'great' to get into the school routine as quick as possible, so he sent me and my sister to school the day after we arrived.
Lucky you.
Richard bit back a smile and the girl turned her attention to the teacher. The algebra that Pots was writing on the board Richard had already learnt, so he drew his gaze back to the girl Kori.
As she was sitting down, he couldn't be entirely sure, but she looked like she was quite tall, his height or possibly even higher, with tan skin. Wavy red hair fell down to her waist and her eyes, a bright, lime-green colour shone out from her face. Richard quickly pulled his eyes away before she noticed and started completing the exercises they were given.
He soon felt the paper brush up against his arm again, and he opened it up.
If you don't mind me asking…you said adoptive dad…?
Richard's breath hitched in his throat. It was going to be asked by someone soon enough.
My parents were killed when I was nine
He handed the paper over to Kori and saw her turn and look at him sorrowfully.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. My parents and younger brother died when I was young too. I live with my uncle and my sister now. I'm sorry.
It's not your fault. I'm sorry too. About your family.
They sat in awkward silence for a while. The silence of the rest of the room made it even more awkward of a moment, before Richard picked up his pen again and scrawled something down.
So you wouldn't know where room A16 is would u?
Kori smiled and nodded.
Bottom floor of the 2 storey building. Middle room.
Thanks.
No problem
oOo
After a slow two hours, lunch finally came, and Richard was faced with the task of finding a place to eat. Besides Kori in his Math class first period, and a few randoms in second period, he hadn't gotten the chance to get to know anyone well enough for an invite into a lunch group, and everyone knew that you don't ask to join a group. You have to wait to be invited.
So to explain it simply, he was going to be a loner at lunch.
Rachel had the whole loner act nailed, mainly because she just didn't like people, but Rich had made a point not to experience it too much in his life. He could deal with being alone, he sometimes even preferred it, what he couldn't handle was the stares and whispers you got from other when you were alone. He wasn't able to block out the rest of the world like his sister, he wasn't able to ignore the looks you got when you were the 'new kid'.
He sat near the oval and watched a group of boys huddle together in the middle of the footy field. A tall, built African-american stood in the middle, throwing a football from hand to hand. He laughed and patted the back of a leaner guy of the same height with shoulder length black hair. The other guy ran over a group near Richard.
"Roy you laze-arse," He said to a redhead guy lounging against a tree, "East verse west game. Get up and play."
Roy looked up from the mirror in his hand, "Garth man, I just gelled my hair. No way am I gonna play." He crossed his arms and Garth looked down on him.
"Come on man, they've got Gar and Wally on their team, we need someone who would at least have a chance running them down."
"No."
"Great! You're coming!" Garth grabbed Roy's arm and dragged him onto the field. Richard raised an eyebrow and was about to go back to eating before Gar came over to him.
"Dude! Rich, you know how to play football right?" Richard shrugged. "I guess…"
"Awesome! We're playing seven-aside, need someone to join. Wanna play?" Rich nodded and got up. As annoying as Gar was, Rich had to thank him later for the invite. As they walked onto the field, Gar started explaining.
"There's an east side and a west side of Jump, we're on the west side. Whenever we want to play something, we always go in teams of our side of town."
"Why don't you pick different teams each time?" Gar shook his head.
"Too hard. This way we always know what team we're on." They came up to one of the huddles, with the tall dark guy with the footy standing at the head. The guy named Garth was standing at the head of the other huddle, the east team. Gar introduced Richard to the west team as they arrived.
"Are you sure he's from the west side Green Bean?" The tall guy asked. Gar bristled.
"Dude, don't call me that! And yes I'm sure! He lives down the road from me!" Gar turned to Richard. "This is Victor Stone, school captain and freakishly good at sports." Victor held out his hand.
"Everyone calls me Vic," he said, "So can we just call you Dick?"
Richard nodded, "Sure."
"Alright then. Where do you play?"
It was this point where Dick realised he didn't really play that much football. He had played a bit of soccer back at Gotham, but football was only ever muck-up games. "Um…is attack good?"
"Attack is fine. You're up the front with me then. Gar and Wally on the wings and the last three up the back for defence." They all got in their positions and faced the east team. Garth and Roy were up the front facing Dick and Vic.
"Tag only?" Vic asked Garth, who nodded.
"You got it." They didn't flip to choose ends, or to pick which team got the ball first, instead Vic tapped it and passed it straight to Dick, and the game was officially on.
As they played, Richard found that there wasn't a lot of experience throughout the fourteen players, but instead a cocktail of various talents. Vic was the standout by far, and Dick could easily see that he was the one who knew what he was doing. Garth wasn't too bad either, but it was clear to Dick that football wasn't his natural sport. Roy just had pure aggression, but his passes and kicks were always right smack on target. Wally, Richard noticed, was super quick on his feet, and Gar, while not as good as dodging as Wally, once he got a clear space, he could break away from the other players in no time. The two wings also proved themselves to be really good at chasing down the other players and stray kicks or passes.
One of these times was shown when Garth attempted to pass the ball to one of his wings, but found it intercepted by Gar. The older boy immediately tried to chase down Gar, but he had sped off and quickly passed it off to Wally, who set it down as a try.
"That's right fish-man," Gar said as he danced around Garth, "You may be quick in the water, but on land, I got you beat!"
"Hey Gar," Wally said, walking over.
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
They were soon two tries even, with only a few minutes left of lunch. Wally nudged Dick and pointed to the sidelines. "Looks like the queen bee and her fan club have arrived to enjoy the show." Dick looked over at the group of good-looking, made-up girls, giggling and winking as they watched the group of sweaty topless guys on the field.
"Hey guys! Quit thinking with your cocks and use your brains for a second!" Vic yelled at them. He gave a quick wave to a blonde standing over with the girls and faced his team.
"Like you can talk rockhead," Roy yelled from the other side, "Quit having eye sex with your girlfriend." Garth slapped him over the head. "You're just jealous Roy."
Vic ignored the comments coming from the guys on the east team and made a team huddle. Richard could definitely see him becoming the captain of a state football team in the next few years. "We got one more point to get in this last minute or two. Any ideas?" The other guys looked back blankly at him, before Richard spoke up.
"You could swap me with Wally."
"What?" Richard crouched down and started drawing in the dirt.
"Put me out on the wing and get Wally in the front. Vic taps off and passes straight to Wally, who darts through the middle, drawing the fire of both their attackers and their wings. He'll make it through easily, and then pass to Gar, who can sprint and make it mostly around their defenders. I'll be sticking close by, so he can pass straight to me and I'll be able to go in there easily with no players in my way." He looked up and winced at the blank looks being given to him. Vic looked down at his diagram and nodded.
"Man, that could definitely work. Let's try it." They ran out of their huddle and took their new positions.
"Dick, man, I so hope this works," Wally muttered as he swapped places with him, "otherwise we're gonna look like, well, dicks." Richard didn't laugh at the play on his name, but nodded solemnly.
"Me too, Wally."
They faced off, and before the east team got a chance to figure out their swap, Vic tapped and passed the ball to Wally. Wally ran straight in between Garth and Roy, leaving them bewildered, and set upon dodging the wings. Gar, closing in from the right wing moved close enough to Wally to ensure a safe pass. Wally passed it to him and he took off to the left and circled around the defenders. Dick sprinted towards him, trying to get close enough, and Gar, seeing that he himself was about to be tapped, launched a pass towards him. Dick caught it, fumbled a bit, before running to the line with the ball safely in his hands and setting it down behind the line and rolling on the grass. Gar tumbled after him and dragged him to his feet, with Wally, Vic and the others patting his back.
"Dude! That was epic!" Gar shouted in his ear, and Dick winced.
"Yeah Dick, that was awesome." Garth said, walking up to them, "Did you think of that?" Richard rubbed the back of his neck.
"Um, yeah. I'm good at that kind of stuff."
"You know how to play too," Vic said, "They're picking the school team next week. I can bet you anything if you try out, you'll get in."
"And Vic could totally put in a good word for ya, couldn't you Vic?" Wally nudged Vic.
"Definitely," Vic nodded. "We could use talent like you, rather than slackers like Roy here." Roy mumbled something intelligible, but everyone else ignored him. As they walked over to the sidelines, Garth moved up to Richard.
"So you're in junior year, right?" He said casually and Rich nodded. "I'm a senior like Vic, but Wally and Roy are both in your year. You can come hang with us during lunches too. Not all of them are spent like this, I'll tell you."
"Thanks," Dick replied, "I will." That went a lot easier than he thought it would. Garth smiled and got his stuff as Garfield came up to Richard.
"First day and already in with the alphadogs," he chuckled, "dude, you are sure doing well for yourself." They both pulled on their shirts as Roy passed around a can of deodorant.
"Dayton!" Gar's head yanked up at a group of boys of his age coming towards them. "Where the hell have you been man?" Vic walked up behind Gar.
"Looks like the sophomore clan are calling ya Greeny," he said quietly, "you might want to go now before they get vicious." Gar chuckled and started walking towards them.
"I'll see you guys 'round then."
"What the hell, Dayton? Why are you hanging 'round with the oldies." Richard heard one of Gar's friends whisper as they walked off. Gar said something along the lines of shut up and Richard faced the others.
Vic saw the curious expression on his face and shook his head. "Gar's mates don't like sharing." He said, "From what I've heard they're a pretty decent group of kids, but I think they need to give Green Beans a bit of leeway every now and then."
"Oh." The group of girls that had been watching walked over. A blonde girl went straight over to Vic and kissed him passionately. The rest of the guys groaned and started making comments and rude gestures towards the couple.
"Boys," A girl with black hair and tan skin walked over, "behave around the happy couple." She walked past and Dick noticed Roy's eyes travelling downwards.
Garth faced Dick. "This is Mandy Tam'ran. Downright the most popular girl in the school. And her friends Kitty, Karen, and of course, Vic's girlfriend Sarah." He pointed out a few of the other girls as Mandy came towards them.
"Richard, isn't it?" Dick nodded. "Great play up there. You're quite the strategist I hear." She winked and lowered her voice. "Nice body too. Haven't seen guns like that in a while." She walked off and Rich stared after her.
"Didn't take her long to hook him," Garth said to Vic, "all she's gotta do now is pull him in."
oOo
Kori came out of the girls' bathroom, carrying her things. She couldn't trust anyone to leave them alone when she had to go anywhere, so if she was called to the office, wanted to buy lunch or had a bladder problem, she had to take her bag and anything else she had with her.
Because who knew what would happen to them if she left them unsupervised.
Like the spot she was sitting in to have lunch.
It was now occupied, by none other than her sister's best friend Kitty and her hideous boyfriend Fang (who knew what his real name was), looking at a various amount of items that no doubt Fang had stolen for his girlfriend. They were making out over the very spot that Kori had been eating at. Kitty glanced up, looked Kori up and down, and snorted.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Kori ducked her head and turned around, looking for a new place to sit. That was the problem with most isolated spots in the school.
Lovers liked to use them.
That was one of the free spots that Kori had found during that lunch. Not so free anymore, and chances were all the other 'secret spaces' were still in use. They tended to be for the whole of the lunch.
Kori checked her watch. There were still twenty minutes left of lunch, and she couldn't just stand in the same spot for that long. She walked towards the library. She knew it wouldn't be open, but she could still hope, right? They might have changed the days that the library opened up at lunch. It might have been changed to a Monday.
It hadn't. Times were still the same as usual. Open during classes and Wednesday and Thursday lunches. No Monday.
It was worth a try. Kori thought so at least. She walked around the side pathway of the library, a cramped spot in between the brick wall of the library and one of the numerous gardens. Although this garden was in desperate need of some TLC.
The path was barely used anymore, because most of the bushes had overgrown and if you were really talented, you were able to get your hair or bag caught in them. The potheads or lovers of the school didn't use it for special time either, because, despite it's prime location (seriously though, no-one would ever get caught there), there was no telling what you could get tangled up in those bushes.
Kori set her bag down on the ground and moved some branches out of the way. She was about to sit down when she saw that the place wasn't as empty as she thought. Another girl, one she didn't recognise, was sitting in the bark, leaning against one of the trees with a book and a pencil in her hands. She was wearing dark jeans and a dark blue hoodie. Long black hair fell over her pale face and down almost to her waist, with a single purple streak. Kori didn't say anything, but continued to sit down.
The dry leaves crackled as her but came to rest on the ground, and the dark-haired girl looked up. Her violet eyes met Kori's own for a second, and Kori opened her mouth.
"I'm sorry," she said, "This area looked empty and I did not realise someone was already here and…" The dark girl raised an eyebrow. "Is it okay if I sit here?"
The girl shrugged and her eyes moved back down to her book. "You already are."
"Oh…" Kori looked down, "I can move if that will make you happier, I don't want to bother you."
"Too late." The girl looked up at Kori's face and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't care. Unless there's some sort of idiot rule in this school, I'm pretty sure it's okay for you to sit here."
"Oh, okay." The girl went back to drawing in her book and Kori picked at her fingernails. She then moved on to fiddling with her hair, unpacking her bag, repacking her bag and playing with her phone.
After a good ten minutes passed before Kori opened her mouth again. "So…"
"My name's Rachel Roth, I'm a sophomore, yes I'm new to town, no I'm not looking for any friends and in fact I'm here hiding from someone who does want to be my friend and no, I am not going to give you the big sob story of my life." The girl said emotionlessly, still drawing. "I'm guessing you were going to ask my name?"
"Uh…"
"I guessed right."
"I'm Kori Tam'ran," Kori said, "I'm in junior year; I have no friends because my sister makes sure I don't get any and I don't think I'll tell you my life story either." The girl Rachel looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Was she surprised or impressed? She kept staring, and Kori soon got uncomfortable. "What?"
Rachel frowned, "Just differences."
"Differences?" Kori shifted in her spot. "What do you mean differences?"
"Where I'm from, girls like you are typically head cheerleaders and the most popular people in the school." Rachel tilted her head to the side. "Just trying to figure out why you aren't."
A giggling was heard off in the distance and Rachel gave Kori a quick suspicious look before putting her head down and pulling her hood up. Mandy, Kitty and most of the other girls in their evil clique walked up and started pulling out smokes. Mandy spotted Kori and sauntered over.
"Well, well little sis," She drew in a long puff of the cigarette on her hands before continuing, "What are you doing here?" Kori looked down at her feet. "Are you sure you have clearance to be sitting here?"
"Does she have clearance to even exist?" Kitty spat, before taking a drag of her own.
"Shut up Kit, no-one asked you," Mandy threw her cigarette at her 'best friend'. Ignoring the yelp from the blonde girl, and turned back to Kori. "I really think you should find somewhere else to sit, little sister." They was she said 'little', it was so demeaning, each and every time. Kori doubted Mandy could even remember her name.
"There's nowhere else," Kori muttered. Mandy walked back to her friends and grabbed another cigarette. As Kori waited, she could feel Rachel's eyes taking in everything that was going on.
Rachel's gaze flitted around the group. She watched Kori's so-called sister, and clearly the leader of the group walk up to a blonde girl in the group trying to pressure her into having a smoke.
"No Mandy, I'm fine." The blonde stepped back, "I promise Vic I'd stay off that stuff."
"Jesus Christ, Sarah," Mandy snarled, "We're the ones that are supposed to get the men whipped, not the other way around. Besides, it's not like he'll ever find out." Sarah shook her head and Mandy walked back towards Kori.
"Listen, sister," She hissed, "No-one finds out about this alright? Because if they do, I'm sure mum and dad are going to be very upset." Kori nodded and Mandy looked back up.
And saw Rachel.
"Oh, you've found a friend now have you Kori?" Mandy stepped up towards Rachel. "What are you doing sitting here?"
Rachel narrowed her eyes. "Didn't realise I had to pay at a meter to park," she deadpanned, and Mandy bent down.
"You're a funny girl."
"I'm the life of the party." Mandy's fists clenched, and Rachel smirked inwardly. Years of pissing Richard off had definitely rubbed off on her.
"Look, Little Miss Gothica," Mandy snarled, "you really don't want to disobey me."
"Why? Are you the queen or something?"
"Don't mess with me you little bitch," Mandy hissed dangerously. Rachel had to stop herself from letting her own temper loose.
"I wouldn't dream of it," she said coolly.
Mandy stepped back, gave a quick glare to Rachel, and turned around. She walked back past Kori and their whole group drifted off. Kori and Rachel sat in silence.
"So. Who's the stuck up bitch?" Rachel deadpanned.
"Mandy. Most popular girl in the school and pretty much the whole town as well. She's a senior and she's my older sister." Kori sighed.
"Sucks to be you." Kori looked at Rachel, and saw a flicker of almost pity, before she went back to her cold demeanour and continued drawing.
Wait. A bitchy queen bee who picks on the minorities to make herself feel good?
Scrap that, this school is exactly the same as all the others.
OoO
Yeah. A lot longer than the first chapter. Hope you enjoy. Please review.
~Clair-Rae