Teen Titans

New Kids On The Block

Chapter 3

The Seeds of Friendship Sewn

Phoenix didn't return to the group of his new friends until well into the lunch hour. He didn't look to be too bothered but Rosalie immediately ran up to him. "Man, where have you been? What happened?"

Phoenix shrugged. "They called my dad in for a talk. Had to explain my side of the story, blah blah blah." He waved his hand and rolled his eyes. "Great way to start my high school career at Jump City." He sat down at the table and pulled his lunch out of his backpack with a grunt.

"Well I'd say it was a pretty good way to start things off," Tony put in from across the table, and held out a bro fist. "Anyone who can get a shot in at Rob and live to tell the tale is all right in my books."

Phoenix smiled and accepted the fist. "Thanks man… Tony was it?" Tony nodded. "Good, I'm horrible with names," Phoenix said with a laugh. He reached down into his bag and pulled out the small sub he'd thrown together the night before, taking a huge chunk out of it hungrily.

The crew spent much of the lunch hour becoming better acquainted with their new friend, asking him questions about his old friends, his tastes in music, his family. The bell rang and Phoenix glanced down at his schedule. Gym class last period. "Oh joy," he said sarcastically as he wolfed down what was left of his bag of chips. "Gym class."

"Gets even better – me and Rose are in your class," Tony said with a grin. "We got your back man. Don't worry about it. Coach Hunter may come off as a hard ass, but he's alright. Just do your best, and let HIM see that, and you'll be fine. First day is usually dodge ball anyways. Easy class." He rose, grabbing his bag and slapping Phoenix on the shoulder as he walked over to him. "10 bucks says you can't hit Rose if you're on opposite teams."

Rose glanced at her friend with a bemused expression. "Really Tony? Setting him up for failure already?"

"You saying I can't do it?" Phoenix challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"You're right – that's what I'm saying. No one has EVER been able to hit me in a game of dodge ball, and I'm not about to let it start now."

Phoenix grinned. "First time for everything. You're on, Stone." He held out a hand, which Tony shook, binding the contract.

"Try not to cry when she takes you out – it just adds to the fun for her," Mary called as she, Chad and Elisa walked off towards their PDR class. Elisa chuckled and shook her head as she whispered to her friends, "He is toast."

Upon entering the male locker room, Phoenix was greeted by a host of unfamiliar faces, all of which carried a "We don't want you here" type of glare on their face. Especially a certain football player. "Back for more, eh Spitfire?" Rob called from the back, abs clearly visible through his tight shirt, voice still distorted from the recently broken nose. "Round one wasn't enough for you?"

"From the looks of it, he's the one who should be asking YOU that," Tony retorted as he stripped his shirt off and began changing. "He's barely got a scratch on him – you got a broken nose and a couple other bruises." This caused the locker room to hiss with quiet laughter.

Rob's face turned as red as his gym shorts. "SHUT UP!" he snapped, causing everyone to fall silent. He stalked up to Phoenix and pointed a finger into his face. "This isn't over punk… not by a long shot." With that, he shoved past Phoenix and yanked the door open, heading into the gym.

The locker room became really quiet after that. Phoenix quickly changed, got out and headed onto the court to begin warming up. He met up with Rosalie as she was exiting the girl's locker room, tying off her hair into a ponytail. "Man, what was going on in there? We could hear the hissing from across the hall!" she asked as they walked into the gym together.

"Oh, Rob's just being a sore loser," he responded. He noticed a rack of basketballs and immediately gravitated to it. The basketball was like clay under his fingers, bouncing to the floor and smoothly back up before getting pushed back down by his wrist into a controlled dribble. Moving up and down the half court, he took a shot at the far net. The ball sailed through the air cleanly before swooshing through the net and bouncing off the polished hardwood flooring.

Moving to retrieve his ball, Phoenix noticed the gym teacher watched with growing interest after each shot. A nice clean arc, into the net with a swish and to the floor with a triplet bounce. He was just moving to retrieve the ball when the coach approached him. "That's quite the shot you've got there, son."

Phoenix gave the man a small smile. "Thanks." He continued to shoot as if the man wasn't even there.

"We've got basketball tryouts coming up in a couple weeks. Any chance I'll be seeing you there?" Coach Hunter asked, his gray eyes still following the arc of the ball – this time as it rolled around the rim and fell to the floor. "We could use an arm like that."

"I'll think about it," the youth replied with a saddened grunt as he missed the shot.

The teacher shrugged, moved away from Phoenix and blew his whistle loudly. "Alright everyone! Park your butts on the bleachers. Class outline time!" He moved into his office to grab some papers while the teens began taking seats along the bleachers.

As with every other class thus far that day, the teacher explained the basic outcomes for the course, how the assignments would be graded, what percentages would be assigned to which portion of things, and gave some forms to be signed by the parents and returned.

And sure enough, as Tony predicted, the coach glanced at the clock before saying, "Last twenty minutes is…"

"DODGEBALL!" the returning students roared collectively before hopping off the bleachers and lining up for the schoolyard pick.

"Spitfire!" Coach Hunter called. "You're Captain One." This was met with a quiet murmuring amongst the students, followed by a few disapproving glances. He quickly glanced around. "Stone, captain two!"

Phoenix groaned inwardly; now he was sure to be up against Rose… unless he won the rock-paper-scissors for first pick. He was on unfamiliar territory as it was, being the new kid in town and not knowing anyone, AND he was up against someone who was supposedly one of the best dodgeball players in the class.

"Good luck buddy," Tony said as he crushed Phoenix's scissors with a rock. "You're gonna need it." He grinned and called, "Grayson." Rose winked at Phoenix as she jogged to Tony's side of the gym.

"Um…" Phoenix struggled to remember names from role call. "Mason?" he questioned, pointing to a tall, lanky teen in the front. The boy nodded and stood alongside his captain.

The rest of the students quickly were chosen… and to make today worse, Phoenix got stuck with getting last pick. Which happened to be Rob. "You're gonna die Spitfire… just wait for it," Rob whispered as he walked past to join a few of his pals.

"GAME ON!" Coach hollered.

Before long, balls were flying every which way, people were falling to the floor left, right and center. Phoenix smiled inwardly when Rob took a ball to the knee, and smiled even bigger when he saw the thrower was Tony. His new friend gave him a quick thumbs up before chasing after another ball to throw.

Just as Phoenix was about to grab a ball rolling past him, he saw a blur coming at him out of his peripheral vision. Quickly rolling to the side, the dodgeball sailed past him by mere centimeters, causing Rose to grimace. He'd managed to avoid every ball she'd thrown the entire game by what seemed like chance. Come on Grayson, get your head in the game, she berated herself as she knelt to grab another ball. You're not gonna let the cute new guy psyche you out… Wait, what? She stopped for a second and tried to analyze what just went through her brain.

It was that one second that Phoenix needed to act. With a quick flick of his wrist, the ball sailed through the air and connected with a soft thump into Rose's left knee. The whole room literally went silent. The Queen of Dodgeball had just been dethroned.

The bell rang loudly, causing a few people to jump from the silence that had preceded it. "Alright everyone! Go get changed and I'll see you third period Friday! BRING A CHANGE OF CLOTHES!" Coach hollered to a few passing students who were walking by in their jeans and hoodies.

Tony came over to Phoenix as they were changing to go home. "Man, you are literally the luckiest guy I know." He did a quick glance around before continuing. "Today alone you have beaten up the school's leading asshole AND dethroned the Queen of Dodgeball." He finished shrugging into his t-shirt and reached into his jeans pocket for his wallet. "I owe you $10." He pulled a crisp bill out and handed it to Phoenix. "A bet is a bet."

Phoenix smiled but waved off the money. "Nah, don't worry about it man. I didn't enter that bet expecting to win, nor did I assume there would actually be monetary gain." He pulled his shirt back on and quickly did up his belt. "Hey listen… I know this may be a bit forward, but you doing anything major after school?" Phoenix asked as they were gathering up their bags and heading for the door. "Maybe we could hang at my place or something… play some video games, shoot some basketball?"

Tony grinned as he tucked the cash back into his wallet. "Yeah man, that'd be cool." His grin disappeared as they exited the locker room to find Rose waiting for them, her hands on her hips. "That on the other hand… is not cool. Your problem bro. I'll be out back in the student parking lot if you survive." With that, he disappeared out the side door.

"So Mr. Big Shot," Rose said with a deathly serious face. "Care to explain how you got so lucky back there?"

"I… um…" Phoenix stammered, trying desperately to avoid eye contact at all costs.

"That was literally… the most amazing display of dodgeball skill that I have ever SEEN!" She playfully smacked him in the shoulder. "You are the first person in over 11 years of school to beat me in a game." Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she shoved him towards the parking lot. "Let's go get Tony and grab a pizza to celebrate."

"You serious? You're not mad?" Phoenix asked as he fell into step beside her, gracefully recovering from a near trip due to her shove. "Seems to me you're pretty hardcore about your dodgeball." The door to the school clanked shut behind them as they walked to his Civic.

She grinned at him as they reached Tony, who was standing next to a blue Cavalier, Elisa sitting in the front seat. "Mad? Nah, not at all, but as Tony can attest, I just give 110 percent into everything." She tossed her backpack into the back seat of Phoenix's car and leaned against the frame, tossing her now loose hair over her shoulder. "You guys up for pizza?"

Tony nodded eagerly. "Meat lovers all day baby! Aww yeah!" He glanced at Phoenix. "Your offer for hanging at your pad still stand? We can order in."

Phoenix shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Just follow me and we'll crash the pad." He started the Civic and with Tony and Elisa in tow, they headed off to the Spitfire home. Both his parent's cars were gone, so they had the run of the joint.

"Phone is on the wall in the kitchen, take off your shoes at the door and we'll be crashing in my room upstairs," Phoenix directed once they had arrived and unlocked the door. Tony headed to the kitchen to order the pizza while Phoenix, Elisa and Rose went upstairs to crash.

"Dude, your room is totally off the hook!" Elisa said as she walked in. Phoenix grinned. He had the biggest bedroom in the house, and was quite proud of how he had organized it. His bed was tucked against the left wall by the closet, which he had converted into a computer area, while the drum set was against the back wall, with various guitar and bass amplifiers lined up facing each other on opposing walls. His black Stratocaster hung next to a white Les Paul Custom, and his blonde Schechter Stiletto 5 string bass was displayed proudly across the way.

He noticed Elisa eyeing the Schechter. "Go ahead and try it if you want. Cords are all hooked up and ready to go on the amp." He grabbed his Strat from the wall, plugged into his amplifier and let loose with the introduction riff to Metallica's Master of Puppets. She grinned back at him, the bass locking into the guitar work almost immediately.

Rose glanced at the Les Paul and Phoenix nodded once, the riffs still chugging along. Soon, the three were jamming together as if they had played together for years. Tony finally arrived, a pizza in hand.

"Now who said y'all could start the jamming without me?" Tony asked, plunking the pizza down on the computer desk and immediately hopping behind the drum set. "Kick it!"

Phoenix thought for a minute before slamming into Pantera's Cowboys From Hell. The drums laid down a solid groove while the two guitars swirled overtop the bass. Before long, the pizza lay cold and forgotten, and the sun was sinking ever lower in the sky.