Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, or it's characters. This show belongs to Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti. I do, however, own Alex

Chapter Ten

June 22, 9:00A.M.

The next day at school was pretty uncomfortable. Well not for me. For Madeline, apparently. During Math class she was giving me mean looks, so I guessed she felt uncomfortable around me. I mean, you didn't see me giving her mean looks. She usually sat next to me during math class and all our other classes that we had together. But she sat with two girls that I didn't know. Every time I would feel somebody looking at me I would turn around and see her staring then she would look away and whisper something to her new friends. It was getting annoying. I decided to ignore them and complete my math problems. Then once again I felt eyes on me. I shook my head in disbelief, but I didn't turn around. After Math I had History. Thankfully she wasn't in that class. But unfortunately she was in my next class; Biology.

As I walked to Biology I felt someone push past me, making me stumble forward a bit. Once I regained my balance I looked and saw Madeline walk into Biology. I squinted my eyes in annoyance. Before I didn't have any feelings towards her, I was just going to let things be. But I was slowly starting to dislike her. At least there was only two more days of school left then I wouldn't have to see her again until September. I continued to walk to my class and when I walked into the room I saw her in my seat. I didn't say anything and just walked and sat somewhere else. I was so preoccupied with her nonsense I didn't notice what was on all of the desks. Frogs. My mouth gaped open and I felt a lump in my throat.

"Are you alright, Alexandra?" Mr. Hale asked me. I couldn't believe we were dissecting frogs. I gave a fake smile.

"I'm fine." I lied. I tried to calm myself down. It wasn't a big deal. It was just a frog. That was just it. It was a frog, and they shouldn't have to die for some stupid school classwork. I raised my hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?" I asked. After my teacher nodded I left the classroom. Once I was in the bathroom I splashed some water in my face and I could swallow properly now. I slowly walked back to the classroom and took a deep breath as I sat back in my seat. After Mr. Hale gave us our instructions on what we were supposed to be doing everybody else started.

"This is like so disgusting." I heard someone say. I rolled my eyes. They probably just thought it was disgusting because they didn't want to touch a frog. I reluctantly dissected the frog. This would be over soon. All I have to do is dissect this and then take notes. That's it. Then the class will be over and I can go to lunch. While I dissected the frog I had to blink tears away a few times but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was I think I could feel the despair of the dead frog. That, is what scared me the most and made this lesson so hard.

I was glad when Biology was finally over. I quickly walked out of the classroom and went to my locker. I put my books in my locker and grabbed my silver iPod and white earphones. As I started walking to the cafeteria I heard a familiar voice.

"She's so weird, she couldn't even dissect a frog," Madeline mocked. I then heard a laugh. "She's such a freak." I was going to ignore her, just go to the cafeteria and eat while listening to music. I started to continue walking. But then I stopped. No. I'm not. And she's going to stop talking about me. I turned around and walked up to the three girls. "She was literally cry—" Madeline stopped as I walked up to her.

"Stop talking about me," I told her, with an annoyed tip to my voice.

"Oh. You noticed?" she asked.

"How can I not notice? All you've been doing is staring then whispering," I said, abrasively, "and you're going to stop." She gave a short laugh, it was as if she was saying 'yeah right'.

"It's sad, how you were calling me a thousand times last night pleading for me to be your friend again," she started, "you need me as a friend, you don't have any others, and without me you're nothing." She started smirking.

I frowned angrily. "Oh I need you as a friend? It seems to be the other way around. Why don't you tell your new friends about how you're a computer geek, Madeline?" I said indignantly. The two girls stared at Madeline confused. "What's sad is that you have to put on a whole new personality every time you're in public," I fumed, "You're a poser," I went on, "I don't need you and I never will need you. Even when we were friends I didn't need you," I ended, whipping around and starting towards the cafeteria again. Madeline and I were done.

June 25, 7:59A.M.

I woke up with a smile on my face. It was officially summer! No more school, no more Madeline drama, no more getting up early. Yes. This is what I needed. Just a nice morning to practice archery. I got ready then grabbed my bow from my closet. Diana probably already left for work so it was no need to knock on her door. I went into the kitchen and washed off an apple. I took a bite then continued on my way. I hadn't been to Shooting Targets in a while. I haven't even been practicing this early for a while. Once I got there and saw the clerk, I gave her a quizzical look. That was weird. All of the years I've been coming here I have never seen her before. She had pretty blue eyes that were so light they almost looked silver. Her hair was dark auburn, like really dark auburn. It reached the middle of her back. You almost couldn't tell it was auburn. I then noticed I was staring and I waved at her. She had a soft expression.

She smiled at me. "Hello, welcome to Shooting Targets." Her smile and welcome seemed genuine, unlike most clerks. "I see you have your own bow," she acknowledged.

"Yeah, it was a gift," I told her. Why did I just tell her that? It's none of her business. But something about her made me not think before I spoke, like I always did.

"It's a nice gift, I got my own bow from my father; it was a gift," she told me. I smiled.

"You're into archery?" I asked.

"Of course! Why would I work here if I wasn't?" she asked.

"That's what most people should ask themselves when they pick jobs," I remarked. She gave a short chuckle. I liked her, for some reason. It was weird.

"You know…" she trailed off.

"What?" I asked.

"I actually have my bow with me," she told me.

"Why do you have it with you?" I asked.

"Because after work I like to practice," she explained. "So, since it's not really that busy in here I can shoot a few arrows with you," she offered. I smiled.

"Sounds like fun," I said. She bent down and popped back up in the next instant with a silver bow. It was shaped like a crescent moon because the ends were sharp, I stared at her bow for a moment and it had started glowing. My mouth gaped open.

"Is something wrong?" she asked as she put her brown quiver strap over her shoulder. Just that quickly it had stopped glowing. It was probably never glowing in the first place. I'm just seeing things.

I shook my head, "No, nothing's wrong," I assured her. When we got into the booth she gestured for me to go first. I pulled a silver arrow from my quiver and made a shot for the middle. She stared clapping.

"You're really good," she complimented. I stepped aside and waited for her to go. She won't be better than me. I watched as she grabbed four silver arrows from her quiver. She had silver arrows like me... except her feathers were silver also. She readied her four arrow shot. I'd like to see this. I folded my arms and waited for her to release the arrows. Once she did the arrows lined up perfectly. They all went down in a line. I stared amazed.

"How did you do that?!" I asked, astounded.

"It just takes practice," she told me. "I can—" she was cut off by the sound of someone asking for help. A look of annoyance crossed her face as she looked toward the exit of our booth, but as she looked back to me her face grew soft again. "I guess I have to take care of that," she told me.

"It's okay. It was nice meeting you," I said genuinely.

"I'm Aria," she introduced as she was about to leave.

"I'm Alex." She flashed me one more smile before she left, then I went back to archery.