Kori Anders

"Did you hear?"

"About what?"

I grabbed my bag of chocolate covered pretzels and plopped onto the couch. It was fun to watch Rachel cringe at the sight of them, with her green tea and a fork dug into a salad.

It was Friday, which meant it was time for my usual trip to the city. I was actually thinking of going to Steel City and spending the night at a hotel there. Jump City was beginning to become a familiar place for me, and I was getting bored of it. In fact, the only thing I knew I could never get bored of was the handsome, jet-black haired, mysteriously masked…

"The whole Galveston Wing flooded. Some guy on the fourth floor couldn't get his toilet to flush, and it messed up the entire draining system."

"The whole building?" I snickered, the thought of that guy possibly being Richard. "Did they say who the guy was?"

Raven, sensing my thoughts, looked at me. I think she was trying to be serious, but her grin deceived her face. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't Richard."

We both cracked up laughing. The week had gone by so weird. Just four days ago, I was freaking out about what Raven had told me about her powers. It took me about twelve hours (all of which I spent locked up in my room) to realize how silly I was being, shutting her out because I was scared that she was going to twist hand off at any random moment.

Richard had been such a jerk the last couple of days, messing around with the "bubbly stuff" in chemistry and causing an explosion. Thanks to him, my hair was blue for the rest of the day. I didn't know what came over him in the hallway on Monday, when he followed me out of French. But the truth was, that I didn't care about it.

At least that was what I was telling myself.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, little crumbs still slipping out of the corner of my mouth.

"I don't know; it's kind of weird. Gar says he goes up to the roof at exactly five minutes till nine and stays up there for hours. There really is nothing to do up on that roof, except for if you have a telescope or a girlfriend."

"Mmm…" I mumbled absentmindedly.

My thoughts were wandering off to the subject of the masked hero who saved me weeks the weeks before. I couldn't understand how someone could be so kind, taking out their own time to look out for careless people like me when they were trapped in alleyways.

His godlikeness was so distracting from his deeds. Of course, I had always heard of those crazy girls who would be on the lookout for "Robin sightings", and I heard the way Access Hollywood talked about him, crazily making up rumors for the tabloids. I had read in magazines that he was striking, and almost too hot for his own good. But I never thought that it was true. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him.

My train of thought crashed when the door slammed open.

"We're here!" came a familiar voice on the other side of the door.

Raven gave me a small look of apology as she got up from her chair to get the door. "Come in, guys."

I sat up on the couch and looked up, startled to find Gar and Victor with about fifteen boxes balanced in the arms.

"Gar? What are you doing here?"

"You heard about the flooding in Galveston, right?"

"Yeah. Everything okay?"

"They evacuated us from the building just now." Gar's face looked pretty happy for someone who just lost his dorm. I looked at Raven curiously.

"Is it okay if he and the roomies stay here? It might be awhile," she said, fidgeting.

She was nervous about something. This was a bad sign, because Raven Roth was the calmest, most collected person I knew. And if she was nervous, then I was going to be a wreck.

I shrugged. "Sure. Stay as long as you like." I faced Gar and Victor. "Its only you two, right?"

They gave each other looks. "Err…"

I was sure that "err" was just the humility of having to live with two girls. I looked at their boxes. Fifteen boxes for two boys almost seemed like too much, like there was a third person with them. I waved it off. Maybe their moms made them pack too many pairs of underwear.

But I was wrong, horribly and terribly wrong. Because exactly one minute and thirty seconds later in the awkward silence, a sweaty Richard walked in with yet another box in hand. He was wearing a white shirt. It was very…thin. I could see his chiseled abs underneath, and when I realized this, I quickly turned my eyes to his face.

"Hey, where do you guys want me to put this?" he asked, not noticing my mouth hanging all the way down to my feet.

And then that dreadful moment came. He looked around the room until his eyes flickered to mine. He almost dropped the box he was carrying, and his eyes churned with a mix of surprise and coldness.

"What it that doing here?" we panicked in unison, pointing at each other.

I looked at Gar and Raven trying to hide behind each other, and waited for an explanation.

"He's kind of going to stay with us," Raven said.

They were roommates? Gar, Vic, and Richard were roommates and I didn't know?

I couldn't take it anymore. I was full of anger, something I wasn't used to. I put on my shoes, grabbed my purse and a jacket on the nearby coat rack, and stormed out the door.

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I never knew I had so much energy. I ran all the way to the train station and onto the train. I was still sprinting when I got off. Maybe running was my outlet. I had been doing it all my life—-running away from home, from Caklan and my mother.

I wasn't exactly sure which direction I was running in, or even where I was going. So many things were going through my mind. I didn't know what came over me when I saw the wall blocking my way, but I jumped over it…and found solace.

It was a beautiful park. The fact that it was empty made it even better. I needed a place where I could think without seeing Raven and Gar making goo-goo eyes at each other, or hearing Victor yelling at his Xbox. A place where I couldn't see the very person I disliked the most.

There was something odd about the park. It was completely empty. I caught sight of a dark figure coming my way, carrying a flashlight. There was a rustling in the leaves. The figure was coming closer, walking faster until it began to break out into a run towards me.

I stood there dumbly. I wonder what the big emergency was…

After that everything seemed to happen in a flash. Something lunged at me from the bushes and tackled me hard into the ground.

"Mhhm?"

It was him, the Boy Wonder. His hand was over my mouth muffling everything that was coming out of it. He looked at me, panic written all over his face.

"Shh..." he hushed hastily. "What are you doing here?"

He let his arm down to his side and eyed me warily, his mask flexing to every curve of his eyes, and allowing me to talk.

"Is it against the law to take a walk? Besides, I needed some air…"

"A walk is normal. But a walk at midnight isn't," he said. "The park is closed. Do you know what security would do to you if they were to find you?"

"This is supposed to be a community park." I lifted my head up and looked at him with challenging eyes.

"You're too stubborn," he said warily. "Not to mention different."

I narrowed my eyes. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Depends. In your case, it isn't so much of a bad thing."

It was a compliment. I was beaming inside.

The footsteps were coming closer. I could feel the both of us panicking. He grabbed my hand and led me quickly under a hole in the tree trunk. It took me a while to realize what we might have looked like to someone passing by.

It almost felt like the walls of the tree were pressing our bodies together. His arms were extended, pushing on the opposite wall and obviously trying to keep his distance from me. I could tell from the look on his face that he was trying to keep alert for anybody coming near, but our noses were just barely touching and our lips just centimeters away from each other. It was too distracting. I turned my head away and stood there with my legs stiff.

This was so awkward...

"You really have to stop ditching school," he whispered, obviously uncomfortable.

"Technically, school isn't in session right now, so this isn't exactly ditching."

"Hmm. Good point." He looked around to see if the coast was clear, and he soon pulled me from out of the trunk.

I brushed my hair to the side of my shoulder and pulled my jacket down. Being so close to Robin had made me dizzy. I tried not to wobble as much as my head was at the moment. He was looking at me peculiarly, as if he was expecting something to happen. I turned beet red.

"I have to go," I said randomly, trying to change the subject.

"Someone's in a hurry…"

"The last train to Steel City leaves in about thirty minutes." He raised an eyebrow. I gathered my jacket and purse, which were still lying on the side of the bush, and faced him. "Thanks, again. I think I'll be fine from here…"

I gave him a soft smile and then turned around, hoping that he wouldn't ask why I was running off to someplace farther away from Victoria Prep.

"Wait."

I jumped when I felt his hand on my shoulder in an instant. His eyes widened when he realized what he was doing, and he jerked his arm away from mine. It was nice while it lasted. I was almost pathetic around this boy.

"Why Steel City? You're a magnet for danger. I can't watch over you like I normally do and keep you out of trouble," he said with a small lop-sided grin. "Are you sure you can't stay a little bit longer? We can stay here for a couple more hours and play hide and seek with security."

I giggled like a silly schoolgirl. My smile wobbled like jelly. I had to get away before my heart exploded from flopping around so much…

"I'm not sure I would have the time…"

"If you really want to go to Steel City, then I'll take you there myself."

"Well, why do you want me to stay so bad?"

It was quiet after that. I suddenly wished I hadn't asked that. He probably thought I was some crazed fan who wanted him to desperately fall in love with me. And none of that was true. It was merely lust. I felt it whenever I was with Roy all the time.

"I'll race you to the next security guard."

He said it so quickly, like he was trying to get away from the subject. It made part of me sad that he didn't answer the question, but my other half was more sensible, and knew that it was better that he didn't saw anything to give me false hopes though.

I really wouldn't have minded an answer, though. My life was built on false hopes.

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I walked through the door with a silly grin on my face. I might as well have been floating on the clouds. I spun around in the kitchen and pranced around the living room.

"Wow. You are weird…"

I yelped in surprise to find Richard lying on the couch. His eyes were barely open, and his hands were resting peacefully on his chest.

"Don't scare me like that!" I hissed, careful not to wake anybody up. Especially Raven.

"It's late. I can do whatever I want."

I ignored his remark. "I can't wait until that stupid pipe gets fixed."

A small smile came over his face. "Waiting for something makes time longer, you know. It looks like I'll be here for a long time…"

I grumbled in frustration and turned my heel to my room. I could hear him chuckling softly to himself behind me.

"Shut up, Grayson."


A//N: Another Kori chapter! I hope none of you mind, but I'm holding off on some of the Raven/BB chapters. I want to develop Kori and Richard's characters a little bit more. Thanks for all the comments and reviews for the last chapter. I appreciated the time!

Please review. I love reading every single one of them. The more, the merrier!

-sTaRfIrExrObIn