Author's Note: God, I don't even know what to say. Let me just start by asking if there are any of you still here waiting for this. Lol, because the reason it took a whole freaking year to update this is because I found my fandom. This was the second story I ever wrote, and if you care to check, now I'm somewhere in the mid-twenties. I found my fandoms. But anyway, the good news is that I'm a much better writer now and can write way more in one chapter. And don't think I forgot about this story, because it's still one of my favorites and I'm finishing it no matter what. I love Hotstreak. So anyway, you've waited enough. Go on and read.

Richie stared out the window absently as he watched birds fly around between tree tops. He was currently sitting in his third period class as his teacher continued to rant on about Sigmund Freud and his influence on modern day psychoanalysis. The blond had been extremely disappointed when he found out he had school today. The thunderstorm ended up only being bad enough for a single day of freedom. He was really hoping for the chance to sleep in today.

'Stupid Dakota bipolar weather...' He thought bitterly. He continued to watch longingly out the window, wishing it was him who was out there.

The genius sighed deeply as he stifled a yawn. He usually looked forward to his AP Psych class, but today was an exception. A certain fiery redhead had been on his mind since yesterday. There was just something about him that kept pulling Richie's interest in. A low, frustrated groan escaped the blond's lips. Why couldn't he just leave it be? Why did he want have the urge to ditch school to search for Francis and get a burger with him?

"Mr. Folley, is my class boring you?" came the sudden demanding voice of Mr. Creen. A few chuckles and giggles could be heard from other students. Richie straightened his posture and turned his gaze to the front as a blush appeared on his cheeks.

"Uh, n-no Mr. Creen, sir," the blond stuttered nervously. The husky bald man stared at Richie skeptically as he paced the front of the class.

"Well then would you mind explaining to the class what a Freudian slip is?" Richie rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. He hated being singled out in front of everyone. He looked down at his desk, trying to ignore the gaze he felt coming from all the other students in his class.

"A Freudian slip is an error in speech which is caused by a person's repressed subconscious thoughts. Some people may also refer to the Freudian slip as a parapraxis. The concept was first introduced by, and named after, Sigmund Freud, who is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis," the blond finished all in one breath as if it were the simplest thing in the world. He continued staring down at the wood of his desk as the room remained quiet.

"Nerd!" he heard someone "cough". The disruption seemed to have brought everyone back from their reverie as a chorus of whispers began between the students. Mr. Creed shook his head and looked at his top student bewilderedly. The Freudian slip was something he planned on teaching next week. Up until today, he'd never even brought up the term. He turned back around and began to write on the white board after quieting down the class. Richie sunk into his seat and stared directly in front of him as he desperately attempted to brush off the raised eyebrows directed his way. The worst part was that there were still twenty minutes before the period was dismissed.

Gleaming rays of light peeked through the openings in grey colored clouds, the puffs of murk being the only indication of the previous day's weather. Two teenagers walked side by side, each holding a tray of food. They dropped their backpacks with a sigh of relief as they reached a metal table out by the school courtyard.

"Can you believe this?" Virgil asked annoyed. Richie raised a blond eyebrow at his friend's sudden outburst.

"What are you talking about now?" the blonde asked amused.

"I'm talking about this weather. It was raining like crazy yesterday, and now it's bright as hell."

Richie rolled his eyes and chuckled. He was used to the ebony teen's random complaints. The blond looked down at his unappetizing tray of food and sighed. He pushed the tray forward and away from him as he put his elbow on the table and supported his head with his hand. Virgil raised an eyebrow as he brought a forkful of macaroni and cheese up to his lips. He ignored the (for some reason sweet) taste and forced it to go down his throat.

"What's wrong with you? You look worse than pops after he found out they closed that donut shop by the zoo."

Richie couldn't suppress the chuckle that escaped him as he gave his friend an amused smile.

"It's no big deal V. I'm just not in the mood for any school lunch."

"Neither am I, but that's never stopped us from eating it anyway."

"I guess I'm just not that hungry right now."

"Wow. Who are you and what have you done to Richie Folley?" came a familiar female voice from behind the two teenage boys. They both turned to see Frieda and Daisy smiling down at them, their own trays of disgusting (yet somehow edible) cafeteria glop in hand. They moved around to sit on the other side of the table so that they were facing Richie and Virgil.

"Don't worry. The Richie you all know and love is still with you. He's just not that hungry," Richie restated as he looked up at the clouds absently. The other three at the table exchanged confused looks and shoulder shrugs at his strange behavior.

"Well now I'm really scared. If you won'teat this…," Frieda started as she scowled at the food on her tray. Daisy brought a hand up to her mouth as she giggled at her friend's statement. Virgil remained quiet as he eyed the blond next to him suspiciously. Something wasn't right. Richie was just fine yesterday. What could have happened to put him in such a bad mood today? Pretty much the only difference between today and yesterday is that he isn't drooling over…

'Oh…' Virgil concluded as a mischievous smirk appeared on his face. He was going to milk this for all it was worth. The teen cleared his throat as he casually smiled at Richie.

"So Rich, tell Daisy and Frieda about who we hung out with yesterday."

Virgil struggled to choke down the chuckle that was bubbling up his throat when he noticed how tense the blond's shoulders suddenly got. The other two girls looked between the two friends with raised eyebrows as they waited for an explanation.

"What are you guys talking about now?" Richie snapped his head back and glared at his friend before grinning sheepishly at the two girls.

"Uh…n-nothing happened. We were just…hanging out with an old friend," the pale teen muttered.

"Old friend? Old friend? You're kidding, right?" Virgil couldn't hold it in any longer as he erupted into a chorus of laughter. He doubled over and clutched his stomach as if trying to keep himself from falling apart.

"Aright, if you guys don't tell us what's going on, right now…"

"U-um…w-well…the thing is, wh-,"

"I've been replaced," Virgil stated simply as he took another bite of his…macaroni and cheese. Everyone at the table, including Richie, turned their attention to him with a confused glare. The dark-skinned teen shrugged nonchalantly as he swallowed.

"Richie found a new best friend," he said as he smiled at Richie. Of course he was just joking, but it was too fun messing around with the people around him. Even heroes need hobbies. The girls snapped their heads back at Richie with wide eyes and gaping mouths. The genius bang baby blushed slightly as he looked down at the table.

"Well?"

"Who is it?"

The blush on his pale cheeks darkened profusely as he realized he'd have to answer sooner or later.

"Francis," he mumbled beneath his breath.

"What? Speak louder Richie."

"Francis," he reiterated, this time loud enough for the two girls to hear. They looked at each other confused before looking back at the blond.

"Who the heck is Francis?"

At that question, Virgil was back to his previous state of laughing hysterically as he fell from his seat and landed on the ground. The three friends rolled their eyes as they pointedly ignored him.

"U-um…you may know him as…H-Hotstreak…"

It was silent for a minute. Daisy and Frieda didn't move an inch as they stared at Richie unblinkingly. The blond teen opted for going back to staring at the table and Virgil continued to roll around on the grassy ground.

"What?" Daisy and Frieda yelled simultaneously. Richie flinched as he figured he had a lot of explaining to do.

"He came up to me a couple of days ago and asked me if I wanted to hang out. I thought he was setting me up for something, but he seemed sincere enough, so I agreed…" the blond explained as he quickly went to work on poking at the crusty food in front of him with his fork. The two girls' eyes widened with anticipation. Their faces were practically oozing with curiosity. But Richie didn't seem to notice as he kept on uncharacteristically playing with his food.

"Uh…hello, Richie? There's got to be more than that. How it go? Was he rude? A jerk? Did he threaten to-"

The pale teenager's head snapped up at all the accusations.

"No! No! Nothing like that, really! We met at Burger fool and he was actually really decent. Nice even."

Frieda and Daisy turned their heads to each other. They seemed to have a silent conversation through eye contact. Richie couldn't help but feel a little creeped out every time they did that. It just wasn't natural. And he should know when things are natural or not. A dark handed stretched out onto the table and Richie turned to see Virgil finally calmed down enough to return to his seat at the table. The ebony still had traces of barely contained amusement on his face, but a quick glare from his best friend was enough to sustain him from commenting once again. Instead, Virgil joined his friend and partner in curiously watching the two girl at their table. They moved their eyes away from them and stared at each other, commencing their own little silent conversation without even knowing it.

'These girls are weird.'

"Hurry up, V!"

"I said I'm coming! I'm not Flash!" Virgil yelled as he struggled to stuff his backpack with the multiple homework assignments given to him last period. With a swift punch, the multiple papers were cramped inside the small space he had available between his textbooks. The teen zipped it closed and swung it over his shoulder before speeding off towards his blond friend who was currently bouncing from foot to foot impatiently in front of the school.

"Finally," Richie mumbled as he began quick pace down their usual route to their houses. Virgil raised an eyebrow as he struggled to keep up. The blond had both hands on the backpack straps as his blue eyes never moved away from the area in front of him. The ebony teen a foot behind him shrugged his shoulders confusedly and stretched his arms over his head. His dark brown irises wandered upwards and he groaned overdramatically. The sky was once again littered with thick, puffy, grey clouds. They seemed to be moving quickly, and Virgil suspected it'd start storming again soon. His bad mood dropped even lower when he felt a fat drop of rain hit his cheek. Virgil inwardly seethed. He used to love the rain, but ever since he got his powers, he can't stand it.

"Francis? What are you doing here?"

Virgil's attention snapped forward once again and his eyes narrowed before they even landed on the muscular redhead holding an umbrella. The redhead grinned at Richie and Virgil just couldn't help but to roll his eyes at the gesture.

"Well, I saw the forecast for the day and saw it was supposed to storm again. I knew you walked home, so I thought I'd bring an umbrella so you wouldn't get completely soaked," the ex-convict informed sheepishly.

Richie seemed confused. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a bright flash of lightning illuminated the sky right before a loud clap of thunder bore into his ears. As if on cue a shower of heavy raindrops fell from the sky. The blond squealed as the cold water that had seemingly come from nowhere touched the warm skin of his neck. Francis chuckled as he brought the umbrella away from his body and over the bespectacled teen's.

"Wait, no! What about you? You hate getting wet," Richie argued as he attempted to push the redhead's hand away from him, but Francis wouldn't budge.

"Stop worrying over me. I'm a grown man; I can take care of myself."

"But what about your powers? You said you can-"

"We're not exactly in any danger. I think I'll be alright," Francis explained.

"Well, you're going to get sick and I don't want you going to the hospital because of me."

Francis' face dropped and his body tensed. His eyes acquired a strange glossy look. Richie's heartbeat sped up. What did he say? What does he do? What's wrong? The blond turned back and gasped when he didn't see Virgil standing right behind him. He sighed. This whole thing between V and Francis wasn't going to go away easily. After all, Richie wasn't the bang baby's only victim of abuse. He turned back to the redhead to see he was soaked. He frowned.

"Oh, come on. It's not that small of an umbrella," Richie grumbled as he grabbed the other by the bicep and pulled him under the umbrella with him. The pyromaniac was pulled out of his thoughts by the firm grip on his arm. His cheeks flushed slightly at the feeling of the smaller's lithe body pressing up against the side of his own, more muscular one as they walked together through the rain.

Alright there it is. Sorry if it sucked after like…a year. But like I said, I'm finishing this. But I'm also writing two other stories right now so update might be late. Obviously not as late as…well…you know. Oh, and if you want to track my progress, go ahead and follow me on twitter. I'm Gohanrules1 and you can start a conversation any time you feel like it. And even though I doubt it, if any of you are into Big Time Rush, Twilight, Glee, or Kingdom Hearts, you should check out my other stories. Well, bye again. And don't forget to review to tell me how bad I messed up. Heheh…I hope you at least enjoyed this a little bit.

-Gohanrules out!