AN: Takes eight years to find Roy. Takes a few months of research and five minutes to get the Scarab off-mode. Logic.
Disclaimer: Obviously not my show.
Test
Open books and papers are scattered haphazardly around his room, covering his desk, floor, and bed. Though he should probably be focusing on one at a time, his mind is moving too rapidly and he's jumping from topic-to-topic every few minutes.
He has another placement test.
Really, he should have seen this coming—school starts in a little over a month, and if he's being enrolled, it'll have to happen soon—but when Dinah told him yesterday that he had a week to prepare, he'd still been blindsided. Even though he's dedicated that last five months to memorizing everything he reads, it feels as though he's not ready, that he'll never be ready, and it's making studying all that much harder. Things he's good at—English, biology, geometry—seem like foreign language now, and it might just be nerves or a sign that he's still functioning at an elementary level.
"Cam!" Wally's voice calls, right outside his room. "Come out, dude! Robin got this wicked new video game and he did some weird computer-nerd thing with the system so the five of us can play!"
"Can't," he returns, glancing at the clock and wondering how it became two in the afternoon so quickly. "I have to study."
"Study?!" The door swings over and the ginger speeds in, a whirlwind of worksheets and loose-leafs fluttering in the air. "Cam, it's summer! You can't possibly be studying for—"
"I have a placement test in a week," he cuts him off, stomping around to gather his materials. "And if I screw this one up like I did the last time, I'm never going to school."
"Oh." Even though he never really talked to anyone about this but Artemis, it's no secret that it's a sore spot for him. "Well, it's in a week, man. You can't seriously expect to spend an entire week cramming. That's not even healthy."
"Look, I just want to get one year of high school in. And I need to do well on this."
"And you will. Seriously, dude, you've worked harder than everyone on this team combined in regards to school work. You're smart."
He snorts in response and sits down on his bed. Wally sighs and sits next to him. "Please, Cam, don't do this to yourself. So far today, how long have you been studying?"
"Since eight," he mumbles.
"Six hours?! You're going to drive yourself crazy!" Grabbing onto his wrist, Wally tries to drag him to his feet. "Getting your mind off of this stuff will be good for you."
Before he can respond, Robin appears, leaning against the doorframe. "Are you two coming or what?"
"Cam here doesn't want to play," Wally explains as he jumps to his feet. "Says he has to study for a placement test that's in a week."
"A week?" Eyebrows shoot up from behind the sunglasses. "No one studies for a week."
"See? And Robin's a total nerd."
The younger boy crosses his arms over his chest. "I am not a nerd."
"Are."
"Are not!"
"Are!"
"Well, you're a geek!"
"No, I'm not!"
"If I'm a nerd, then—"
"Not that your bickering isn't positively fascinating," Cam drawls, "but I have to focus on this."
"How long does it take to get someone?" Connor and Kaldur are now here, Connor with a scowl on his face.
"And it's a reunion," Cam mutters, throwing the papers in the air.
"Cam doesn't want to play because he says he has to study for his placement test in a week," Robin reiterates.
"Which is absolutely insane because no one should study for that long," Wally adds.
"Look, guys, please, can you just leave be? I need to ace the test."
"No you don't," Connor objects. "You can bomb a few sections and those will be the classes you take in school."
"Brilliant!" Wally practically shouts.
Cam covers his face with his hand. "I need to not bomb most of them. Which means I need to study. Which means I need peace and quiet."
"If Cam believes he should be studying, then it is not our place to stop him," Kaldur says solemnly.
"Kaldur," Robin whines.
"You're such a killjoy," Wally mutters.
"But I do feel that it would be beneficial if he allowed himself to spend time on something else."
"See? Even Kaldur says you should." Wally's demeanor has shifted amazingly. "And he's leader, so it's practically an order—"
"Okay, okay, fine!" Accepting defeat, he stands. "Let's go play."
They play for a while, but when they're finished—Robin having won most of the levels—they refuse to let him go back to his room. It's mostly Robin and Wally doing the insisting, but even Connor and Kaldur keep saying that he needs to "relax." Clearly, they don't get how big of a deal this is, and no matter how many times he tries to explain it, they're not going to. By the time they release him, it's almost midnight, and he's too tired to bother with studying. Setting his phone alarm for eight, he blasts the volume and slips into sleep.
His plan to study for the whole day is shattered by mid-afternoon with the arrival of a half-Kryptonian, a speedster, and an acrobat.
"We're going to help you ace this thing," Wally says as he saunters into the room, not even bothering to knock. The others are right behind him.
"What?"
"Robin's a math expert; I'm your chemistry guy; and Connor has everything else. We'll help you study."
"Not that you need it," Connor throws in.
"And by study, we mean like normal people," Robin continues. "Two hours a day, max."
"But—"
"No buts. You'll do worse if you psyche yourself out. So, math first?"
He knows there's no way of getting out of this, and he trusts them, so he agrees. Their two-hour policy is strictly enforced, Wally zipping around the room and gathering all the materials. "And now we enjoy summer."
The pattern doesn't change for the rest of the week, and on the day of the test, he's feeling confident.
Until Dinah shows up with a hundred thousand pages of questions and he wants to crawl under a rock.
"You ready?" she asks him softly.
"Y-yeah," he lies, passing the six pencils nervously between his hands. "It's open-note, open-book, open-Google, open-friend, right?"
"You're going to be fine," she promises. "You know this."
"But what if I don't pass?"
"Don't think like that."
"But it's possible."
"You will pass," she murmurs. "But if, somehow, you don't, that doesn't mean anything."
It does. It means he's stupid, that he wouldn't last in high school, that he's wasted his time even trying to become any smarter than he was. He can't tell her this, though, because he can't be worrying about the test and her wanting to analyze him, so he manages a weak nod and sits down.
"Good luck," she tells him, placing the test before him.
The next four hours—yes, four—are a blur, and he represses any memories of the exam as soon as he hands it to his mentor. Wearily, he retreats to his room and flops on his bed, hoping for the best and expecting the worse.
"Cam?"
"Come in."
The three boys enter. "How'd it go?" Robin asks.
"Don't know."
"How do you think it went?" Wally tries.
"Don't know."
"Do you know how to answer the questions?" Connor demands.
"I think."
"You think?"
"I don't want to talk about it," he mutters. "Or think about it. Or even acknowledge its existence."
There's a moment of silence. "You did fine," Robin says.
"How do you know?"
"Because you knew everything we went over," Wally responds. "Now, come on. Let's shoot some hoops. Get your mind off this."
Dinah finds them there a little while later, in the midst of a game of two-on-two. Noticing her, Cam completely ignores the ball until it hits him in the chest. It barely registers as he approaches her. "You graded it?"
She nods. "Cam, I'm so sorry."
The whole world stops spinning. He knows the others are listening.
"You're going to have to dedicate seven hours of your day for 190 days to senior year."
"Really?!" he shrieks (in a dignified way, of course).
She smiles and pulls him into a hug. "You did great, Cam."
"Told you you could do it!" Wally cheers, slapping him on the back.
"No doubt," Robin agrees.
And Connor, Mr. Sensitive, adds, "Not that school's even that great, anyway."
Maybe it's not to them, to any normal teenager, but it is to him. And he finally gets to go back.