A/N: I got so inspired I wrote this chapter in one go! I'm guessing it was the awesomeness of Performance that made me want to write. Artemis with her hair down? Yes please!
So I hope you like this chapter, we have some more awkward interactions, my writing being confusing and Wally being... well... Wally! ENJOY!
Edit: Sometimes Fanfiction makes me want to throw my computer across the room! GAAHH!
…...
Mount Justice
March 12, 6:30 AM
"Okay, so my dad is Rudy and my mom is Mary but I just call her mom- Are you even listening?"
Artemis looked up groggily, blowing a stray lock of red hair from her face. "Sure, your dad is Mary and- wait."
Wally shook his head, his new hair smacking his face despite his and Artemis's attempts at pulling it into a pony tail. "Artemis, you have to focus," Wally scolded and the archer looked up, the sheer amount of serious in his voice made it clear he was not playing around. "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired. We've been up all night talking about what you like on your toast." She remembered starting to doze off around jam and bananas being great together.
"I know, I just think it would be best if no one knows about our... situation before we at least find out what caused this."
Artemis nodded and was just about to speak up when she noticed a look of panic cross her own face. "It's this late? My parents will wake up in half an hour and they'll freak if I'm not there." He started to usher her towards the zeta beams but she easily stopped him. Hands resting on her smaller shoulders, she realized how much stronger Wally was. Shaking her head, she got to the point. "Slow down there, I don't even know where you live. I practically stumbled out of your house, I wasn't really paying attention on how to get back."
A look of confusion crossed his face before he came back to life. "Right, well, umm... I'll just take you there."
He took the lead and Artemis watched him stomp to the zeta beams and disappear. "Why did it have to be him?" she groaned to herself before following him.
Central City
March 12, 6:58 PM
"Here we are," Wally said, gesturing to the two story house in front of them.
"Cozy," Artemis commented dryly. The speedster grabbed her large hand in his small one (she'd never noticed how small she was compared to him) and she let him drag her over to the back of the house. "See that window there?" Artemis looked up.
"Yeah I see it."
"Great. That's where you're going."
"No problem," she said cockily and her hand reached back instinctively. When her hand didn't land on the familiar feathers, it fell back to her side. "No arrows," she commented to herself. "And with this huge body of yours it won't be easy to climb up." Ignoring Wally's protests ("I'll have you know you I'm very fit") she looked around and located a tree close to the window. With a smirk, she took a few steps back and then broke into a sprint. In a fraction of a second she started running at an irregular speed and when she saw the tree closing in on her it was too late.
With a loud crash, her face made contact with the tree and she fell back to the ground.
"What the hell are you doing?" Wally asked, shocked as he ran to her. She rubbed her most likely broken nose and managed to sit up. "I'm fine."
"Please, I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about what effect this might have on my face later on. A broken nose isn't very appealing."
Artemis gaped and then smacked his upper arm. Wally only grinned at her and rubbed his arm. "That's going to make a lovely bruise."
She rolled her eyes and finally stood up, wiping blood from her nose. Taking a few steps back she readied herself for another attempt. "Wait Artemis, don't-"
She started running again, this time conscious of her speed and with the momentum and a good push off the ground she managed to get a grip on the first branch, about 13 feet off the ground. "Who says third time's the charm?" Artemis joked. Using her, or Wally's, upper body strength, she hoisted herself onto the branch and then jumped over to the next one. A few jumps later she was standing on a branch parallel with the window. The only downside, it was a three feet away. Reaching out with her hand, she barely scraped the window before she had to move back to catch her balance.
"Any other bright ideas?" Wally asked sarcastically from his place on the ground. "Just one."
Grabbing the branch looming over her head, she moved as close to the edge of the lower branch as possible and then tightened her grip on the upper branch. She used her in-preoccupied hand and tried once more to reach for the window. Thankfully, it was open a crack so if she could just get close enough to lift it open- Craaack!
Her eyes widened as she heard the loud crunch and then her hands were suddenly carrying the weight of Wally's surprisingly heavy body. The thud of a branch hitting the ground was heard and she took a deep breath. Dangling about 35 feet in the air with one hand on a very thin branch, Artemis didn't feel very optimistic. "Swing to the window," she heard her voice encourage from the ground. Right. I'm a hero. This is easy.
Swinging a few times to gain momentum, she finally let go and moved through the air, her hands landing on the hard concrete of the narrow windowsill. Her arms screamed in protest as her body jerked down, but she gritted her teeth and started to pull herself up. Thank god that idiot has some upper body strength.
First her foot got on top of the sill with her knee following. As soon as one leg was balancing her on the windowsill she released one hand and pushed the window open. Clambering inside awkwardly, she fell to the floor with a grunt. "Artemis? Artemis?"
She grumbled under her breath and then stood up, leaning outside. Wally was looking up at her, giving her a thumbs up with a goofy grin that looked out of place on her face. "School starts at 8:30, Gotham Academy, locker keys are in my school bag. Do you know how to get back to my house?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty familiar with Gotham since Di- umm, yeah I got it."
"Text me, err, you, if anything goes wrong. I'll have this on me at all times." She waved his cellphone to show it and he nodded. "Aw crap, my parents are up. Get into bed." Artemis leaned over to see that the window next to hers was illuminated. She gave him one last look before shutting the window, jumping into the bed and pulling the duvet over her head. I hope we can pull this off.
Gotham City
March 12, 8:12 AM
"Artemis, you're home."
Wally jumped as a tired looking lady in a wheelchair greeted him at the door. Judging by her looks, he concluded that this was Artemis's mom. "Hey... mom."
Paula raised an eyebrow as her daughter looked around the small apartment before pointing towards her bedroom and then disappearing through the door. Shaking her head, she rolled into the kitchen, deciding that her daughter was most likely just having one of those days.
Wally looked around the room he had woken up in and now that he wasn't having a minor panic attack he could really take it in. He looked at the second bed, it looked like it hadn't been slept in in a while. Glancing at the clock he realized he had little time to work with. Spotting a school bag behind the door he pulled it up and placed his hand on the doorknob. A loud cellphone chime stopped him and he pulled the phone hastily from his pocket.
Almost forgot. School uniforms r required. I hope u know how 2 dress in the dark.
A loud groan escaped his mouth. Letting the the bag strap slide from his shoulder, he walked towards the dresser. He opened up the first drawer and saw an arrange of books and photos. If I had the time, he thought as he looked at a particular book marked journal.
Closing the drawer shut, he opened the next one. The second drawer held a wide arrange of multicolored T-shirts, Third drawer; two piles of jeans and dark green sweats. Fourth drawer... his hand froze on the handle as the grip tightened. The fourth drawer was full of socks and- he gulped- underwear. Tearing his eyes away (who knew Artemis was a Victoria Secret fan) he closed it and opened up the last drawer cautiously. Inside were a couple of school uniforms.
Despite his curiosity to see if Artemis was wearing something similar to what was in the fourth drawer, he shut the drapes and turned of the lights. Quickly albeit clumsily he managed to pull on the shirt and skirt before he turned on the lights. Checking himself in the mirror to see if he had accidentally pulled the shirt on backwards, he made note of the fact that Artemis looked particularly... cute in this assembly.
Glancing at the clock, he yelped when he saw that he had five minutes. Thankfully he knew where the school was so he pulled on socks and shoes that hurt to walk in and then pulled up the bag as he ran out the door.
The bell rang just as he stepped through the gate and he walked as calmly as possible with the other students. Panting from the effort of running down 10 blocks, he smoothed back the annoying strands of hair that fell into his eyes.
"Artemis. Artemis, over here."
Someone placed a hand on his back but the hand was quickly pulled away. "Why are you sweaty?"
Wally stared at the blonde in front of him, hoping his confusion wasn't visible. "Anyway, I have to get to class. Mr. Embles will freak if I'm late again. Catch you at lunch."
Right, class. Stuffing his hand into the bag he finally located the key chain. Checking the locker number on it, he ran down the hall to look for the right one. He finally found it and jammed the key into the lock to open it, hastily checking Artemis's schedule and grabbing what he hoped were the correct books.
As he closed the locker, he realized he had no clue how to get to the right classroom. Grabbing hold of the first shoulder he saw, he was almost happy to see that it was Dick. He was just about to say hi when he remembered that only Wally knew who he was. Artemis had no clue. "Umm, could you tell me how to get to classroom 203?"
Dick smirked and pointed down the hall. Wally thanked him and started running down the hall.
He pushed open the door to the correct room and bursted into the room. Every eye turned to him and he smiled awkwardly as he tried to keep his cool.
"Glad to see you decided to join us Miss Crock. Now, would you mind taking your seat." Wally glanced at the middle aged man behind his desk and realized he didn't like him. Not one bit.
Looking back to the classroom, he saw two empty chairs. He sat down at the chair closest to him but at the stare he received from the old guy, he realized it was the wrong one. Laughing awkwardly, he stood up and sat down in the other seat, looking at the person sitting next to him for confirmation. The redheaded girl nodded subtly and he let his bag drop to the floor.
"Now, as I was saying, the square root of 16 isn't 3, nice try Mr. Bellson, but actually-"
A loud cellphone ring. Wally continued to stare at the bkacboard until he realized that, once again, all eyes were on him.
"Oh, right," he said, digging into his bag for the phone. "No phones during class Miss Crock," the teacher droned. Noticing that it was from Artemis, he grew worried. "I'm sorry, but it's really import-"
"No phones during class."
"But if I could just-"
"No phones during class."
"It's a matter of life and-"
"No phones during-"
"Class. I know," he finally conceded, placing the phone back into his bag. The old man sighed and pushed his glasses higher onto his nose. "Right. If you could turn your books to page 39 you'll find..." Wally glanced longingly at the bag on the floor and then raised his hand. "Yes Miss Crock?" The old guy sounded extremely annoyed and a few snickered.
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
The teacher shot him a pointed look which obviously meant no. He slunk back in his seat as the old guy rambled on.
Busy cursing the universe, Wally didn't notice the pair of scissors in the pencil case his hand was digging through. As he felt the semi-sharp blade slice his finger, he pulled it out and looked at the small cut. Smirking, he pulled out the scissors, made sure no one was looking and then dragged them across his palm. Placing them back in the pencil case, he took a deep breath and then yelped loudly.
Everyone turned to look at him and he lifted up his hand. "I cut myself. May I please be excused to go to the nurse's office?"
"I suppose I can't let you bleed out although it would be tempting" he mumbled under his breath. Resisting the urge to throw something in this obnoxious teacher's face, Wally swept the contents of his table into his bag and then rushed out the door with a small bow. Finding the bathroom, he wrapped a few tissues around his palm and then used his uninjured hand to find the phone. Dialing his own number, he pressed call and then waited anxiously. "Come on, come on, come on," he mumbled.
"Wally?"
"Artemis, is everything okay?"
There was some shuffling at the other end of the line and then he heard her take a deep breath.
"I sort of maybe got into a fight."
The door to the bathroom opened and a bulky guy stared at him. "What the hell are you doing in the men's room?"
…...
A/N: Success, I actually enjoyed writing this chapter! I hope you like it because it's my favorite so far! Every person that reviews gets a cyber-Easter egg and a cute baby chick! Spread the love people! P.S. I stayed up really late to finish and post this so you better appreciate it! :D
