A/N: When you read this, pay attention to the whole Raven-or-Ava thing. I regard them as two different people. And to be frank, it's confusing the Limbo out of me ;)
Disclaimer: I'm really bad at remembering to do this, but then again, isn't it obvious? If I owned Teen Titans – or Charlie Bone – this wouldn't exactly be fanfiction.
It seemed Raven had located the correct tower, for when she reached the first landing she found a partially open door, from beyond which came the low chatter of students who were deeply engrossed in their work, accompanied by the steady whirring of a machine, and the occasional thud or wet smack. That must be where they make pottery, Raven guessed. She had made pottery before, but it had been plain and utilitarian, not the sort of thing one would make in front of gifted potters on her first day of school.
So Ava continued to climb the stairs. The second room she came to was filled with cloth, beads, threads, yarn, and even looms. There was no way Raven was stepping foot in there, so up another flight of stairs Ava went. As she reached the third and final landing, she noted that it was the quietest room of the three she'd seen so far. Tentatively opening the wooden door, Ava poked her head through the small opening. A forest of easels and canvas greeted her.
"Hello," said a girl who was painting at a nearby easel. "Are you new?"
"How'd you know?" Ava asked, stepping just past the door frame.
The girl smiled "You looked kinda lost. And besides, there are only about a hundred art students anyway."
"Is that all? Seemed like there was more this morning in the hall," Raven commented
The girl threw back her head and laughed, a wild tangle of long red curls following the motion. "You would get that impression from the morning rampage. Of course, you do realize that only the kids in green are in art, right?" Ava had barely nodded before the girl continued. "I'm Anja, what's your name?"
"Ava," she said, shaking Anja's hand. Anja glanced at the clock, before turning back to Ava.
"There's only a few more minutes of class left, and I think Mr. Smyth is upstairs with the carvers, so you might as well just hang out here 'til the bell rings."
Ava set down her bag and watched as Anja turned back to her painting, a beam of light striking the surface of a small pond, somewhere deep within a forest. The trees were, as yet, shadow less, and the monochrome ground bore a curious resemblance to the texture of canvas, but there was no denying that when complete, it would be a brilliant painting.
Raven was just beginning to fidget with her cloak – it was so different from her blue one, the material was rougher, and there were slits to put your arms through – when suddenly the air was full of the sound of a single B flat being played over the intercom. That must have been the bell, because Anja jumped when she heard it, and her hands flailed outwards for a moment, as if they were looking for something, before landing at her throat. With a practiced flourish, Anja produced a pair of glasses from her collar and primly placed them on her nose with a little start, as if the world were somehow brighter then she recalled.
"Huh. You seemed taller as a blurry blob. Then again, most people do." Neither Ava, nor Raven, knew how to respond to that, so she just nodded.
"So where to? Do you know what your first period class is?" Anja asked, hastily washing the ends of her paintbrushes, and putting the paint tubes into a cabinet.
Ava shrugged. "Dr. Morvan said he'd send someone with my schedule before first period, than he just left."
Anja giggled "Ooh, I bet he swished his mysterious black cloak as he left. He gave you the full Dracula effect for sure!"
Ava never got a chance to respond, for at that moment, a voice from behind said "Girls! I'm astonished to hear you talking about your principal like that! Everyone knows Dracula had a cooler accent." Both Ava and Anja sighed in relief as they turned to see a cheerful young woman smiling down at them.
"I think I'd recognize that wild red hair anywhere, so you must be our new student," the woman said, looking first at Anja and then turning to examine Ava. Her spiky blond hair, pale complexion, and light blue eyes made her rather distinguishable as well. "Technically, I'm Ms. Thompson, but you might as well just call me Sandra like everyone else. What should I call you?" she continued, staring curiously at Raven.
"Just Ava," came the subdued response.
"Well, 'just Ava', this is your schedule. If you don't know where your next class is, just ask a teacher or a friendly looking student. Before lunch, all the students are required to go into the field and run laps for half an hour. After dinner, you'll need to report to the King's Room to complete you homework. Now, come on, I've got to get back to Mrs. Valkner, or she'll have my head for not helping with the wigs."
"Wigs?" asked Anja, sounding amused.
Sandra huffed in exasperation. "Toni somehow managed to cause a whole shelf of wigs to fall, and now we've got to fix the shelf and untangle and brush all the wigs."
"Ava and I've got the same class together; I'll show her where to go. You help Mrs. Valkner," Anja volunteered. Ava couldn't help but feel there was some sort of ulterior motive, but Sandra bought it and said -
"'Kay, see ya!" before she was out the door. Between Alice, Dr. Morvan, and Sandra, Raven was starting to become just a bit tired of people briskly leaving all of a sudden.
The moment she was out of sight, Anja turned to her with a raised eyebrow which Raven promptly returned. "The King's Room? You didn't tell me you were one of the endowed."
Raven was confused "Endowed?"
"You know… do you have any odd talents?" Anja asked, looking at her meaningfully.
"Oh. That." Ava said.
"Yeah, 'that.' I'll ask you what 'that' specifically is later. In the meantime… well the caretaker's got a cane, and he's not afraid to use it on kids who are late to class."
)o(
"So you're my new locker mate?" Beast Boy looked up to see a boy with curly blond hair and thick glasses.
"I guess so," he said straightening up and finding, to his surprise, that the other boy was exactly the same height as he was. "I'm Logan Gardner"
"Noah Marino," said the boy. "So did you just move here?"
"Yeah, I moved from South Africa." He responded
"Woah, Africa? Really?" Noah exclaimed in surprise, taking in the tan skin and many highlights that Cyborg's holo ring had provided. At Beast Boy's nod he continued. "That's so cool! Were there lions and elephants?"
Beast Boy nodded proudly "My parents worked at a game preserve. We had all of the big five; the elephants, lions, rhinos, cape buffalo, and leopards."
"A game preserve?"
"It's like this giant fenced in park. It's to protect animals from being hunted or poached," Beast Boy explained, waving his arms around enthusiastically.
"Cool… Did you play video games sometimes?"
"Dude, of course I played video games!" Beast Boy cried. "My cousin sent me new ones every Christmas."
"Nice," Noah commented. Next to him, 'Logan' heard someone say 'Woah, look at that chick! She must be the hot new girl everyone's been talking about!' Beast Boy turned around and saw Starfire walking down the hallway towards him, staring intently at a piece of paper in her hands and occasionally glancing at numbers on doorways.
"Funny how you two transferred here at the same time," Noah noted.
"Dude! That's my cousin!" Beast Boy said, glaring in the general direction of whoever was talking about Star that way. If Robin heard you… Beast Boy wisely decided not to continue that thought.
Meanwhile, Starfire had stopped in the middle of the hall, and was staring first at the paper, than at the closest room number in utter confusion, when a girl with brown pigtails approached her.
"Hello, you must be new here! My name's Lily, what's yours?" said the girl.
"What? Oh, I'm - Andrea. Do you know where Mr. Maud's classroom is?" Starfire asked quickly, hoping to pass the hesitancy off for nervousness. Come to think of it, she was feeling some of 'the jitters.'
Lily smiled "Sure, I'll show you how to get there," she said tugging on Starfire's wrist as she expertly wove through the crowd.
)o(
English had been easy, almost ridiculously so. The teacher, Mrs. Reed, was going to be on maternity leave soon, and so she was trying to rush them through Romeo and Juliet as quickly as possible. It was actually somewhat entertaining though, even if everyone there had obviously read, seen, or acted in the play at least once; all the drama students immediately volunteered to do this character or that one. It was particularly amusing to see Tybalt in a purple cloak with a bubblegum-pink bob.
After English, the entire student body had been funneled out of a back door and into the Field, a large, hilly, fenced in area that was covered in itchy grasses and weeds. Anja tugged on Ava's arm and led her towards her right at a very slow pace.
"If we walk slowly, all the other kids will pass us. Then you can tell me what your endowment is," she muttered in a low voice.
"Mm-mm, I'll tell you, after you tell me," Raven stalled. She didn't feel like sharing yet.
"It would be better if I showed you what I do. And unfortunately, I can't show you until after dark," Anja said persuasively.
"Then you'll just have to wait until then," Ava laughed.
Before Anja could reply, a tall, Asian girl with short black hair sprinted over to them from somewhere up ahead.
"Hey, Anja! Why are you way back here?" She asked, skidding slightly as she changed direction and matched their pace.
"Morning to you too. Charlotte, meet Ava. Ava, meet Charlotte," Anja said.
"Hello Charlotte," Ava said politely.
With a lopsided grin Charlotte shook her head. "Call me Charlie," she corrected. Charlie's grin was infectious. Perhaps it was because Raven had loosened her restraints on her emotions that she found herself genuinely smiling back as she nodded. "So, are you actually an Artist, or are you a weirdo like Anja?"
Anja shouldered Charlotte playfully, so Raven assumed that the jest meant no harm. Not wanting to be left out, Ava responded humorously, "I thought all artists were supposed to be weird, but yes, I am also weird in a similar way to Anja." This earned her a laugh from both girls. Still, the fact that she had been asked that question by both of the students she'd met so far made her wonder if that was a standard question for new kids at Morvan's Academy. At least it was better than being asked 'where did you transfer from?' She had a cover story, but she didn't particularly want to go into detail about it.
Without warning, the same B-flat bell resounded through the Field, and the students began heading back inside.
"Come on, we've all got history with Dr. Bloor together."
A/N – Wow. It only took 4,885 words to get to Raven's first day of school, + another 1,048 to get to BB and Star's first day. I didn't really want to use any of their 'real' names (the official aliases used by cannon, anyways, seeing as Kori Anders is not Star's real name) since then, if they were exposed, it could lead to trouble, especially in the case of Grayson and the dynamic duo. Besides, Cyborg didn't go by 'Victor' at H.I.V.E, he went by 'Stone.' (a nod towards his real name, but not actually it.) By the same token, I'm going to slightly alter their pasts, and probably throw in a bit of The White Giraffe in BB's case. I'm not saying that what they're saying is true, just that that it's true for their cover.
On another note, YES! Classic has finally gotten more views than I'm not a Vampire! Though it has long since had more reviews. This fic has the second to last amount of views (the last is void because the stats went offline when I published it) and yet it has the highest review rate; about .0308219178082192, so thanks everybody!
... Sorry. I may be a geek, but I'm also a nerd. And it's science fair time, which means data analysis - wooh! :P
Review por favor~
