Or a few weeks..heh..(nervous laughter). School's a drag, so many dialecticals (did I spell it right?) for English and don't even get me started on my Math and and US History tests. It really is a drag. Too many things going on in school. I get out at 10:30 for the rest of the week since the 11th graders are taking some big test. I feel really bad for not posting soon enough so I have a surprise for you at the end of this chapter. Just keep reading until the very end.
Disclaimer: I never have and NEVER WILL own the teen titans...no matter how much I really want to..
With that being said, I present you Chapter 4!
4 years later..
Stepping out of the path that lead to the plane he took a look around. He shielded his eyes from the sunlight that relfected against the windows with his hand. 'Why does it have to be so sunny?' he thought. Great, she just had to live in a place like Hawaii. He slung his bag over his shoulder and looked around.
'Where is she?'
"Dick!"
'Dick' turned around to find a girl with long red/orange hair and crystal blue eyes wrap both arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged back. "Hey Babs" he said. Babs detached her arms from 'Dick' and stood back examining him from head to toe. She grinned. "You've grown a lot" she said crossing her arms and smiling. 'Dick' huffed and shoved his hands inside his pockets. "Obviously. I'm not going to stay a midget forever, and please can you not call me Dick. It's embarrassing."
Babs uncrossed her arms and ruffled his spiky hair being a few inches taller than him.
"I'm your older sister. I'm supposed to embarrass you…Dick"
He swatted her hand away and fixed his perfectly spiky hair. "It's not Dick anymore Babs. It's Richard. Dick's an embarrassing name. Think about it"
Babs rolled her eyes. "Yea sure whatever. Anyways how's Bruce?"
"Bossy and arrogant as usual. I'm actually glad he allowed me to live with you"
The 21 year old smiled confidently to herself. "That's cause I'm an adult, a grown woman, a mature woman who's now allowed to vote and party- "
"Don't get ahead of yourself Barbie. You're still the dorky sister I've ever had."
Bab's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"What did you just call me squirt?!"
Richard's eyes widened as she started to walk toward him. Her boots clicking against the tiled backed away, his black converse shoes squeaking.
Quickly he turned around. "Run away!" he yelled sprinting, Babs hot on his heels shaking her fist in the air. "C'mere and face me like a man Dick!"
"I told you it's not Dick it's Richard!"
Babs chuckled to herself.
"What are you laughing about?"
The older woman glanced at Richard, who now was sporting a bump on his head, had his arms crossed against his chest, his left leg crossed over his right one and an angry pout stuck on his face. The sight made Babs want to laugh even more at how childish her little brother was being.
"Oh nothing" she said. She glanced at the younger teen from the corner of her eye. "Dick will you stop doing that? You look like a 5 year old who can't have a cookie before dinner". Richard's pout deepened. "Fine you can pick your own bedroom if you want". Silence. "We can go out for pizza and ice cream?". Silence. Babs looked at the roof of the car thinking of something to say to get Richard to talk . She suddenly remembered what she had been thinking about all day. "Oh I just remembered. You're starting school tomorrow". THAT got Richard's attention. He whipped his head to face her, his eyes widened so big Babs had to bite back a laugh. "What do you mean I start school tomorrow!" he yelled.
"Well you're going to start school sometime"
"I know that, but I just got here Babs! I mean, you can't just spring this on me. It's not even 2 hours and you're already sending me off to school"
"Okay first of all, I don't care that you just got here it's better to send you to school sooner than later. Second, I just did, and third, it doesn't matter how long you've been here. You're still going to school whether you like it or not. Be glad that I'm not going to send to school now. Little brother".
Richard grumbled. Babs heard the words of 'Not fair', 'Bossy sisters' and 'Second Bruce' coming from him. She sighed and turned the music from the radio up louder.
Stepping inside the mansion, Richard took a look around him. He could see an entrance leading to the living room, the kitchen was on the other side of the mansion. The only room that separated the living room and the kitchen was the dining room. There was the large and long staircase leading to the bedroom and bathrooms.A beautiful chandelier hanged from the snow white ceiling, and the walls were painted a creamy color. Richard let out a low whistle. "Impressive. How'd you get a place like this?" he asked.
"Duh, Bruce Wayne's daughter remember?"
Richard's eyes narrowed a little in annoyance. "Adopted daughter Babs" he corrected her. Babs dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Same old same old". Richard watched her walk towards the staircase. Babs turned to face him and motioned Richard to follow her. "Come on, like I said I'll let you pick out your bedroom" she said. Richard sighed. "Home sweet home" he muttered to himself. He then followed Babs up the stairs.
Walking down the hallways Richard glanced at the pictures that hanged on the cream colored walls. One picture was a picture when he and Babs were children. Him being 9 and her being 15 years old. Her arm was looped around his shoulder with a grin plastered on her face, while he had a small smile spread on his child like face. Their all too familiar crystal blue eyes staring back into his. He let his eyes drift to another picture. This picture showed a 16 year old Babs standing of one side of the frame and standing next to her was a girl who looked about 10 years old. Her long brunette hair tied into a half pontytail, her light tanned skin reflecting against the light on the picture frame, and her ocean blue eyes twinkling. Her grinning face stared back at him.
"Babs?"
Said person turned her head to the side to look at Richard. "Yea?"
"Who's this girl in the picture?"
Babs walked over to where he stood and stood beside him also glancing at the picture. She let a small smile make its way on her face. "That's Eva Stanton,she was a good friend of mine. When Bruce made me move here I remembered her always showing up on my doorstep to either give me food that her mom would make or invite me to the mall with her friends. She was a sweet girl" she said mournfully.
Richard glanced at Babs.
"Was?" he asked.
Babs eyes drifted to the floor. "She died..4 years ago.. got attacked by a shark when her and her friend went surfing just before the championship surfing contest" she explained, biting back a sob.
Richard's eyes widened in amazement. "She's a champion surfer?" he said in bewilderment.
"Was" the older woman corrected him. "She was the junior champion, along with her friend Kori Anders". Richard wanted to ask more questions, but one look at Bab's face expression and he crushed his curiosity down. "Well, let's go find your room" Babs said, turning around and walking down the hall as if nothing had happened. Richard sighed, and followed her.
"Well, this is your room" Babs opened the door that led to a master bedroom. Richard walked in and stood in the middle of the room, looking around in amazement. "Wow.." he mumbled, shocked at how large his room was. He placed his large suitcase on the carpeted floor and flung himself on his king-sized bed. Richard sighed, in happiness and content, finally being able to get away from his adopted father. Babs grinned. "I'll leave ya alone so you and your new room can get to know each other",she said. The teen didn't hear her, nor did he hear his door close. He sat up and took one more look around his room. The walls were painted a sky blue color. There was a large brown dresser on one side of the room across from his bed and a wardrobe next to it. There was also a large window that was across from the door. Richard stood up and walked to the window. He lifted the blue curtains away and squinted when the sunlight shined through the window, brightening up his whole bedroom. Richard looked past the glass. It was a beautiful day outside. The sky was clear from any clouds, the grass below was a perfect green. Children walked down the sidewalk holding their parent's hand. Richard debated with himself whether he should go outside and explore or to stay inside hearing his older sister nag at him all day. 'Explore it is' he thought. He walked back towards his suitcase, picking it up by the handle and plopping it down on his bed. Richard took out a clean pair of jeans, and a red short sleeve shirt. Once he had gotten dressed, he walked out of the door after opening it. Taking one last look at his room, he closed it.
"Where are you going?"
Richard turned to Babs whom was sitting down on the table sipping on a juice pouch. Richard walked to the fridge, opening it and taking out a water bottle. "Out. I'm just going out for a while" he replied while closing the fridge door. Babs nodded. "Alright well, just don't be back too late. Remember, you got school tomorrow".
Richard rolled his eyes. "Ugh, don't remind me", he said. He walked to the kitchen door, pushing it by him while mumbling "I'll be back soon". Before Babs could reply back, he was gone. Babs placed a hand on her forehead and sighed. "If I knew he was going to be a second Bruce, I would've never offered to take him to live with me" the older woman said tiredly.
Richard was sitting down on a park bench that he had found surprisingly empty since the park was filled with people. He stared at the blue sky in wonder.'I'm surprised that it's so clear out today. Usually in Gotham, it's always cloudy. It's never been a sunny day, not once.' He thought. He wondered how Alfred was doing, how Bruce was coping with the fact that he had thoughts drifted to his old school. He wondered how the school was dealing with his absence. He never really liked his school anyway. There were too many pot heads or drunkies. And don't even get him started with the girls in his old school. He thought about his new school. Babs supposably told him that the school he was going to was a thousand times more better than his old one,but he wasn't going to take her word for it. He was going to have to see for himself. Richard was brought down to earth when he felt a soccer ball hit his leg pretty hard. He felt a twinge of pain shot up his leg, but didn't flinch.
"Sorry!"
A little boy, probably the age of 10 ran towards him. His hair was shoulder length, curling at the ends, and was bright red, his skin was a strange color of tan, almost orange infact. His eyes were a bright emerald was short and skinny, wearing a green short sleeved shirt and blue jeans along with white Nike sneakers. Both of his wrists were covered with brown colored bracelets. "Sorry" he said again. "I'm really really sorry. I didn't mean to kick it at you, it was by accident, honest!" he said apologetically.
Richard smiled. "It's okay, really. It didn't even hurt me" he said gently.
"Really?"
Richard smirked and patted his leg that the little boy's ball had hit. "I've got a good leg, been on a track team for sometime now" he said proudly. The little boy grinned. "That's really cool! Ya know, I always wanted to be on a track team, but that's usually Alex's thing. I'm more of a soccer kind of guy" the little boy thrusted his thumb on his chest and smirked cockily. "Last game, I scored 15 points! All by myself. No lie".
"Really?"
"Really"
"Ryan!" Richard and the boy turned to where the voice was. "Ryan, where are you?" a voice called out again."I'm over here Kori!" the boy, Ryan, called back motioning her to come over with his hand. Kori. That name sounded familiar in Richard's head, but he couldn't put his finger on where he heard that name before. He could forget so easily. The figure became bigger and bigger as it had came closer. Richard's eyes widened. In all his life, he had never seen someone so beautiful, so perfect looking ever, and he's seen a lot of good looking people. Her long beautiful flaming red hair swished in the wind, her skin was so tanned and orange looking but yet it looked so right on her, and her beautiful emerald green eyes shined in the sunlight. She was tall, probably a centimeter or two taller than him, and her figure was slim and perfect. She was wearing a lime green short sleeved shirt, and black shorts, showing off her long tanned legs, and black hightops. One word came into his mind. 'Beautiful'. Her eyes narrowed at Ryan, whom was standing next to him. "Ryan! What did I tell you about wandering off?" she said in a scolding manner. Her voice was so soft and sweet, it gave shivers down Richard's spine, and the good ones too. Ryan smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry big sister, but I wanted to get my ball" he said. The beautiful girl,called Kori, sighed tiredly. "Alright,but I'll only let you off the hook once". She turned her attention to Richard. "I'm so sorry if he gave you trouble" she said. Richard snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Kori dumbly. "Um.."
Kori smiled apologetically. "I'm terribly sorry if we disturbed you". Once Richard finally got back his tounge and replied quickly. "No!, no, you didn't interrupt me or anything, and it's alright. You don't have to apologize". Ryan jumped up and down infront of his older sister. "Yea! Yea! He also told me that he was on the track team, so it didn't hurt when my ball hit his leg". Kori looked at the other teen and raised an eyebrow. "I have never seen you around here before" she said, confused. "I just moved here this afternoon" Richard replied. Kori felt a tug on her shirt and glanced down at Ryan. "Kori, Ima go over there and play with Mike and the others." He said, tucking his soccer ball under his arm. "Alright, but just be careful"
The two teens watched Ryan run towards a group of children his age. Richard realized that she was still standing. "You can sit down, if you want" he said, uncharastically shy. "Where are you from?" she asked, sitting down comfortably. "I'm from Gotham" he replied. "What about you?".
He mentally slapped himself silly for asking a stupid question. It's obvious she's from here, she was BORN here!.
'Stupid idiot'
"I'm from Tamaran."
Richard felt his eyes widen slightly. "Tamaran?" he said surprised. Kori smiled at his reaction. "Tamaran is a very small island located around Monaco" she explained. "But, I thought you were Hawaiian".
"I've moved to Hawaii when I was a baby. This has been my home ever since. However, I heard that Tamaran is a very beautiful place, I would like to visit there someday".
A couple of hours had passed and learned Kori's heritage, and her family. It turned out, she had 4 other siblings, two younger ones, and two older ones. He learned that she was going to the same school that he was going to also. In exchange, he told Kori about his family. About Bruce, Alfred, and Babs. He also told her about his school and his home. They had laughed, and talked so much that they didn't realize that the sun was going down.
"Well, I better be going. My mother is expecting me at the house." Kor said, standing up. "I better find Ryan". She turned and smiled at Richard. A smile that made Richard's heart beat faster. "It was nice talking to you". Richard smiled back, a little saddened that she was leaving so soon. "Yea, it was nice talking to you to" he replied back. Kori turned back around and walked three steps before turning her head to him again. "I forgot to ask about your name" she said.
"It's Richard. Richard Grayson"
Kori smiled and turned her head back around. "It suits you". With that, she left in search for her brother. Richard grinned, a small blush forming his cheeks as he stood up, continuing his way to his home. The same stupid grin stuck on his face on his way back.
He flopped down on his bed sighing happily. He heared the door open and his older sister's voice filling his ears. "So, are you looking forward to school tomorrow?" she asked. Richard sat up and faced Babs. His lips stretched into another big grin.
"Totally"
Before you ask, yes Babs is Richard's older sister. I chose her to be. I feel like in this fic, someone needed to play a part as Richard's older sibling. So I chose Babs. Why did I choose Babs? Well, because I sort of like her. The only thing I don't like is her past relationship with Richard, that's basically it. I feel like her and Richard's relationship is more like brother and sister, not romantically, and I wanted her to play a part in this story. So what better than to place her as Richard's older sister? If you don't like it, then either don't read the story or just deal with it (My bad if it sounds rude I didn't mean it to). Okay, now that that's done and over with there's the surprise. It's a preview of what will be happening later in the story, I won't say the chapter or exactly when, but it WILL happen.I just couldn't get it out of my head so I wrote it down on paper. Okay enough yapping. I present you with the Preview.
"I can't do this"
Richard took his eyes off of the beautiful sight before them and stared at Kori. her eyes sparkled whenever the sunlight would land on them, her tanned skin had a certain shine reflecting against the smooth looking skin,and her hair reflected against the sun. She was indeed, more radiant than the sun itself. He smiled, "Yes, you can" he said softly. Kori's eyes drifted to eyes locked on to one another. "No, I can't do this. I won't Richard". Richard blinked. "What do you mean?", he asked in confusion. Kori sighed deeply, "I mean that I won't surf again. And that's that". Richard frowned," But, why? Why can't you surf anymore?" Kori's eyes downcasted. "It's not that I can't it's that I won't"
she murmered. "You wouldn't understand". Richard's eyes narrowed, frustration starting to grow inside of him. "I would if you'd just tell me". Kori's eyes snapped up to him, narrowing also. "I don't have to explain my reasons to you. If I can't go to the water, then I won't go. That's that", she snapped.
"From what I heard, you were the best surfer there was around here, and then suddenly out of nowhere you gave up on gave up on your dream. Why the sudden change of heart?"
Kori grit her teeth in irritation. "Why do you want to know? So you can change my path around? So you can 'make a difference'? People already tried that Richard, and I turned them all down, and they gave up without a fight. So what makes you any better?"
She turned her back to him and walked away.
"So I don't have to explain to you", she said.
Richard felt hurt swell up in his heart, but he crushed it down, and growled in anger. If she thought that he was going to go down without a fight then she was wrong. He won't give up on her even if he were dying a slowly painful death on this very spot. He quickly followed Kori until he was only a few feet behind her. "I'm not giving up on you!", he yelled. Kori immediately stopped and whirled around to face Richard. "Well maybe you should! Everyone-" she motioned their surroundings with her hand."-has given up on me. My parents,my family, everyone! they gave up on me. It's time you do the same" she yelled, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
Richard's eyes widened.
"Kori.."
She turned her back to him and continued walking.
"Kori, I won't give up on you!" Richard called out once more. Kori stopped in her tracks, her back still facing him. Even though he couldn't see her face, Richard could tell that Kori was on the verge of crying. Judging by the way her shoulders were trembling.
"Then you're wasting your time", her voice cracking at the word 'time'. She then left, leaving Richard standing alone in the middle of the beach with the ocean waves crashing against the large bulky rocks, the sun setting lower and lower shielding it's sunlight behind the sea, and the untouched surfboard that Richard had handmade..just for her..
What do you guys think? Bad?Good? let me know.
Review! :D
