A/N: I remembered to update today and had time to after stressing over a paper, lol. Enjoy and leave a review to let me know what you think!
Mia eyed the middle school Roy had parked in front of with suspicion. "Do we really have to worry about this right now?" she asked.
"Yes," Roy replied. "You haven't been to a school in almost three years. I know from personal experience how challenging it is to get caught up academically when you're that far behind."
"So you've gone bad to school after years?"
"Uh…not exactly. I was homeschooled."
"Well, why can't we do that?"
"Because I want you and Connor to have as normal lives as possible. That means going to school."
"School's stupid."
"School is important. It won't be so bad. Come on." Roy got out of the car and Mia sighed before following. "It's the same school Connor goes to, so you'll already know one person."
'And that person is the near-silent boy who barely makes eye contact with me, let alone talk to me.' Plus, Connor had already been in this school for pretty much an entire school year. He probably had friends and wouldn't want his foster sister hanging around. Mia kept her complaints to herself though. She followed Roy into the main office and hung back as he talked to the secretary. Eventually, they were directed to sit in some chairs to wait. Mia crossed her arms and resisted the urge to look around. 'I haven't been to school in years.' And it wasn't like she'd been a great student before that.
"Raymond Wayne?" a man asked as he stepped out of his office. Roy stood and shook his hand. "Howard Walterson, I'm one of the assistant principals. Come into my office. One of our guidance counselors will be joining us shortly."
"Sounds good," Roy replied. He gestured to Mia and she reluctantly walked over to them. "This is Mia."
"Nice to meet you, Mia," Mr. Walterson said.
Mia noticed that he didn't hold out his hand to shake, but she didn't particularly care. After a moment, Roy put his hand on Mia's back as he led her into the small office. The two of them sat in the two chairs across the desk from the administrator.
"I understand one of your foster kids already attends our school?"
"Yes, Connor Hawke. He'll be in the 8th grade this year."
"Ok. Mia, you've attended schools in the Star City Public School District before, right?"
"Yeah…" Mia replied.
"That's good. I'll just pull up your records."
There was a knock on the door and another man entered. "Hello," he smiled. "I'm Kevin Addams. The 8th-grade guidance counselor here."
"Raymond Wayne," Roy said, shaking his hand.
"Yes, I remember you when you enrolled Connor Hawke." Mr. Addams looked at Mia. "You must be Mia Dearden. Welcome to Eastside Middle School."
"Thanks," Mia replied.
Mr. Addams sat on the edge of Mr. Walterson's desk and looked at his computer. "What school are you transferring from, Mia?"
"…Redwood Middle School."
"Have you been homeschooled for the last few years? Or did you leave Star City?"
Mia bit her lip, then looked at Roy. 'What am I supposed to tell them?!'
Thankfully, Roy seemed on top of it. He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off. "Mia hasn't been in school for a few years," he explained. "She had some…home life difficulties."
"I see. Mia, what was the last grade you completed?"
"Uh….5th grade?" Mia guessed.
"I see." Mr. Addams looked at Mia's record on the computer, then shared a meaningful look with Mr. Walterson. "Mr. Wayne-"
"Raymond," Roy said.
"Raymond, do you think we could speak privately?"
Mia bristled. "If you're talking about me, I want to stay," she told them. She gave Roy a challenging look and he shrugged.
"Ok, then… Given the…special circumstances Mia's faced and her record, I'm not positive that this school is the best place for her."
Roy frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? This is the middle school for our neighborhood."
"I'm aware but… I'm afraid that the curriculum might be a little…challenging."
"You think I'm dumb?" Mia asked with narrowed eyes.
"No, not at all!"
Mr. Walterson held up his hand to stop his colleague. "Mia is already several years behind her cohorts and her records show she was far from a stellar student before she left school. She barely passed the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades…and she was on track to fail out of 6th grade completely. She also has a history of disciplinary problems from acting out in class and being aggressive toward the other students."
"Connor also had a history of aggressive behavior."
"Connor is a…different case. He didn't have the added academic pressures that Mia has."
'Of course, Connor is different,' Mia thought bitterly. 'He essentially went to a private religious school for years.'
Roy blinked and squeezed his knees with his hands. "I don't understand… If you don't want Mia attending this school, what school should she attend?"
"Mountain Ridge Elementary?" Mr. Addams suggested quietly.
"…You want me to send her to an elementary school- She's 14!"
"I understand it may be difficult for her socially, but it would be the best option academically."
"But you had no problems with Connor being slightly behind the curve academically?"
"Connor was different. Mia is much farther behind and she's hardly proficient in the standards of the lower grades," Mr. Walterson explained. "And frankly…we don't have the resources to catch her up enough to join her peers."
"Not to mention most students with Mia's…background tend to disappear and reappear in schools all the time. It's hardly worth all the resources we'd have to invest. We have almost 800 other students to think about."
Roy narrowed his eyes. "So you think trying to help her get caught up wouldn't be worth the resources…because she's a runaway?" He glanced at Mia felt his heart twist at the look on her face. Without hesitation, Roy stood up. "Thank you, I think we're done here."
"We can call Mountain Ridge Elementary so they know to expect you-" Mr. Addams began, but Roy held up his hand.
"That won't be necessary. I'll find a school for Mia myself." He gestured for her to stand and steered her out of the office. Before he left, he looked back at the two men. "And I'll be un-enrolling Connor as well." It was silent as they left the school. Roy was fuming and Mia's cheeks were burning. When they got in the car, Roy didn't move for several seconds. "…I'm so sorry Mia," he told her gently. "I…never imagined they'd say something like that."
"I could've told you they would," Mia muttered. She grit her teeth to try and keep the tears at bay. "Me and teachers have just…never gotten along."
"It's ridiculous." Roy started driving home. "Don't listen to them, anyway. I'll find a new school for you that will find it worth their precious time to help you succeed."
'God, the thought of being in an elementary school at my age is humiliating,' Mia thought as she watched the city go by outside the window. 'I'd rather just drop out.' She crossed her arms. "Do I really need school? I can just work with you at your private detective agency."
"No, you're going to school. I just need to do some research on schools in our area. I'll find a good one for you, I promise."
"…You don't need to go to all that trouble…"
"It's no trouble. I want you to have a good education and you deserve that."
Mia just continued looking out the window. 'School and I have never gotten along,' she thought. "Why is this so important to you?"
Roy was quiet for a minute. "When I lived in Star the first time…my guardian was Oliver Queen."
"That rich guy who went missing?"
"Yeah. He didn't let me go to school when I lived with him, because he wants to control me. It was like…an extension of his abuse. I left school in the 6th grade and didn't really have an education until I went to live in Gotham. I just don't want you to miss out."
"…Makes sense." Damn, there he was being the nice-guy-hero again.
When they got home, Connor was reading in the living room. He looked up when they walked in and immediately picked up on the tension in their bodies. "Everything go ok?" he asked.
"Not exactly…" Roy replied as he gently corralled Mia to sit on the couch. "Mia won't be going to Eastside Middle School. And you're not going back in the fall."
"Why?"
"It's not important. You two just relax, I've got some schools to look into."
Connor went back to his book as Roy left. As soon as he and Mia were alone though, she started talking.
"Go ahead and ask," Mia grumbled. "I know you want to."
"I'm fine if you don't want to talk about it," Connor replied, glancing up from his book.
"You're not at all curious?"
"Well…I'm curious, but if you don't want to talk about, then I won't force you." He waited but Mia simply looked away, so Connor simply shrugged and went back to his book.
Mia crossed her arms and pulled her legs close to her body. "They think I'm too stupid to be in the 8th grade. They don't want a former prostitute running around their precious school."
Connor frowned. "Did they really say they didn't want you at the school because you were…you know?"
"They didn't say as much, but I knew what they meant. There's only one way people talk about you like that."
"Oh…"
Mia played with her hair for a few minutes. "I'm sorry Roy is making you change schools."
"It's ok. I don't mind."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I don't like school anyway."
"You won't miss your friends?"
"I don't have any."
"Oh." Mia glanced at him from the corner of her eye, but Connor was still reading. It was silent between the two of them for a while before Mia spoke again. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"How did you become a vigilante?"
Connor looked up from his book. "…I- I told Roy that if he didn't let me stay here and be his sidekick, I'd become a solo vigilante in San Fransisco. Which would've been a lot more dangerous."
Mia blinked. "You actually did that…like…you?"
"Yes. I'm not proud...but I did."
"Why was being a vigilante so important to you?"
Connor looked at his book but didn't resume his reading. "Reasons…"
"Like?"
Connor sighed. "My father…he's the Green Arrow."
Mia's head snapped toward him and her eyes widened. "No."
"Yeah."
"No! Your father is there Green Arrow- Your mom had sex with the Green Arrow?!"
"Can you not?!" Connor squeezed his hand to try and keep it from shaking. "Please just…don't."
"Sorry. So…that's why? You became a vigilante because your dad- Wait, is this the same Green Arrow who abused Roy when he was a kid?"
Connor flinched, but nodded, not trusting his voice if he spoke. He swallowed against how suddenly nauseated he felt.
"Oh my God…" Mia didn't know what else to say. What else could she say? 'I can't even believe it. Connor doesn't even eat meat, but his father beat the shit out of Roy daily?!' And Roy had taken Connor in knowing that. There was his nice-guy-hero complex again. She looked away and slowly grabbed the tv remote. 'But I don't have some kind of…weird sense of guilt like Connor does. And I don't really have a way to force Roy to let me become a vigilante if I wanted to. Because I don't know if I want to. Why should I? Don't I have more important things to be worried about? Like being dumb for the rest of my life?' The thought sent a shiver down her spine. The thought made her wonder if maybe she should just go back to the streets and track down Richard. She squirmed when she thought about him.
Even if it was nice to not have to be working at night, Mia couldn't stop herself from missing Ricard. Even if he was the reason she'd needed to be a prostitute. Even if he'd slap her and the other girls around if he thought they were out of line. 'At least I always knew what his intentions were and where I stood with him,' she thought as she stopped flipping through the channels to land on a movie. 'I still don't know either of those things with Roy.' And it drove her crazy. The constant underlying buzz of anxiety sometimes made the ache in her chest for Richard (and his familiarity) even worse. She shifted and changed the channel again, looking for something to distract herself with. Something to calm the uncertainty inside of her.
— —
That night, Mia said bye to Roy and Connor like she had the past couple of nights when they left for patrol; whoever, unlike those nights, on this night, she followed them. Trailing the two vigilantes wasn't easy. She left the apartment a few minutes after they did and followed them down the block, jumping behind buildings and cars to hide every few minutes. 'I can be sneaky,' Mia thought as she stopped behind the edge of a building for a few seconds. 'I could be a vigilante. She followed them down several side streets until they reached a fence and disappeared through it. Mia waited a few seconds, then followed. She let herself in through the gap and stepped into a yard behind a four-story building. It sort of reminded her of Evergreen. There was no sign of Connor or Roy, so she headed for the back door of the building.
"Mia," a voice said behind her.
Mia spun around on her hell and raised her fists. "Who's there?" she asked in what she hoped was a tough voice.
"Easy, kid," Roy said as he walked out of the show of the fence with his hands up. "It's just me."
"Oh." Mia relaxed her fists and wrapped her arms around herself. "You scared me."
"Sorry. I just…do that sometimes. What're you doing here?"
"I…wanted to see your headquarters. You know, your secret lair."
"Why?"
'To figure out if the vigilante thing is for me. To find some kind of meaning in my life besides a past that left me with a disease that literally weakens me.' Mia shrugged. "I just…wanted to see."
Roy considered it for a second. 'It can't hurt,' he thought. 'It's not like she's showing an interest in night work anyway. And maybe it'll help her connect if she understands the work Connor and I do.' So, he nodded and gave her a small smile. "Follow me."
'Really?' Mia thought as she trailed after Roy into the building. 'It was that easy?' The door was still unlocked when they walked in and she looked around. "Are we…at your office?"
"We are. I own this whole building and the land it's on." Roy walked over to the staircase, which Connor had closed upon his descent (as was their policy) and lifted the step to undo the latch.
Mia's eyes widened as several stairs dropped down to reveal a hidden staircase. "Dramatic."
"Thanks. Come on, this way."
There was a moment of hesitation in Mia's mind, but she pushed past it and followed Roy down the steps. 'I have to be brave if I want to fight crime. And I'm not a coward.' At the bottom of the stairs, Mia tried to keep her face neutral. This was the coolest room she'd ever been in. The computers. The weapons. It was all so…comic book-esque. And she honestly loved it.
"What's she doing here?" Connor asked. He was wearing his suit, but without the mask or weapons. He looked at Roy for answers.
"Mia wanted to see the Arrow Cave," Roy explained.
"Arrow Cave?" Mia snorted. "That's so lame."
"It is not."
"It is and it doesn't even make any sense."
"How? Batman has a Bat Cave."
"That's different. Bats live in caves." She looked at Roy. "You should call it the Quiver."
"I'm not doing that."
Mia turned to Connor, but he was looking at the floor. 'Some help he is.'
'Quiver is a better name than Arrow Cave,' Connor thought. 'But I don't want to agree with her. If Mia becomes a vigilante, she and Roy will grow even closer and it'll make it easier for her to replace me.' Not to mention it would give her one more common ground with his mentor.
"Other than the perfectly valid name, what do you think?" Roy asked.
"It's…cool," Mia admitted. "Really cool."
"I'm glad you like it."
Mia wandered toward the weaponry area, eyes scanning the arrows excitedly. "Can I shoot one?"
"A trick arrow? Those are dangerous to use inside."
"A regular one then?"
Roy shrugged. "Sure." He walked over and grabbed a compound bow off a rack. It only took him a couple of minutes to lower the draw strength enough that he was pretty sure Mia could handle it. "Try pulling back that string. It's one of my old bows from my days as Arsenal."
Mia took the bow and pulled back the bowstring. "I got this." She held out her hand for an arrow.
"Let me show you how to shoot it." Roy grabbed a regular arrow from the rack, then led Mia to one of the two targets. "Ok, let's start with your stance."
Connor watched Roy show Mia how to shoot, trying desperately to keep himself from getting upset. It wasn't easy though. His stomach twisted and minutes ticked by. 'Come on, Roy,' Connor thought. He glanced at the time, then back at Roy, who as smiling as he helped Mia with her grip on the bow. 'Let's go on patrol!' Fear and anger crept up his insides. 'Roy already has a sidekick. Me.' Now Mia would become an archer and it would be one more thing she had in common with Roy; taking over the one thing Connor had with him. 'Anger isn't good. Neither is jealousy.' So, Connor did the one thing he could do, he found a corner of the Arrow Cave to sit and tried to meditate away his jealousy and fears.
— —
When Mia's arrow finally hit the target, Roy smiled widely and gave her a pat on the back. "Great job!" he cheered.
"It's so far from the center," Mia said with a face.
"I know, but you still hit the target. That's really good for a first try."
"It was like…the tenth arrow I shot."
"Still really impressive."
"Thanks." Mia looked at the arrow and felt something warm and strange blossoming in her chest. 'And I didn't even have to sleep with enough men to make a few hundred bucks to feel this proud.' It was a nice change. And if she joined Roy and Connor, she could feel like this more often. She Roy in the eyes. "I want to be a vigilante."
Roy blinked and across the room, Connor's eyes snapped open from his meditation. "What- Why?"
"Because I want to." What other reason did he need?
"No."
"Why not?!"
'Because I'm already putting one child at risk, I don't need more,' Roy thought. "It's too dangerous."
"So it's not too dangerous for Connor, but it is for me?" Mia crossed her arms. "Seems kind of sexist to me."
Roy sighed and shook his head. "Connor is different."
"Why?"
"It just is! We need to get to patrol, so you need to go home."
"But-"
"Come on." Roy started walking toward the stairs, clearly ending the conversation.
Mia watched him go with her eyes narrowed, then huffed and threw her bow down before following; silently glowering at her guardian's back.
"Connor, I'm taking Mia home. I'll be back soon and then we'll patrol."
"Ok." Connor watched them go silently, then closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. 'Mia's going to replace me,' he thought. 'She'll find a way to become a vigilante and then she'll replace. Roy will see die away and I'll be alone. I'll never be a great hero and I'll end up being like Oliver. Just like Mom warned me!' Connor squeezed his fists as his lungs struggled against the sudden shores of breath in his chest. Nausea churned in his stomach and he so dizzy that even sitting down he felt leak he would fall over. 'Breathing,' he thought, forcing his lungs to inhale and exhale in small, slow gasps. 'Start with mindful breathing.' Connor focused on his breathing, then moved his awareness further out in his body to his posture. He carefully pushed each racing thought from his mind, placing less attention on them and more on his body. Slowly, his heart rate slowed and his chest stopped hurting.
When Connor eventually opened his eyes again, he was still a little sweaty, but he wasn't disoriented and he could breathe, so it felt better. He slowly got to his feet and walked over to where Mia had dropped the bow. He picked it up, then looked at the arrow still lodged in the target. 'This is the best hobby anyone could ask for,' he thought. 'I'm sure she'd be a great vigilante too. She's a lot like Roy. She'd deeply connect with victims and really be able to make them feel safe and help them.' He knew it was selfish. He knew it was wrong, but Connor couldn't bring himself to accept the idea of Mia being a vigilante. 'It's nothing against her, but I need this. I have to be here. I just have to be.'
— —
Mia didn't talk to Roy as he dropped her off at the apartment and slammed the door in his face before he could say anything to her. "What a jerk," she grumbled as she stomped to the bedroom she shared with Connor. The same Connor who could run around at night, risking his life for others, but she couldn't. "Of course he likes Connor more. Connor's a good little monk who barely makes a sound. He's a fucking vegetarian! Why wouldn't Roy want him as his sidekick instead of someone like me." Mia tried to ignore the burning in her eyes as she changed into her pajamas. "He says he wants to help me, but he won't let me do it in my own way."
Frustrated and upset, Mia crawled onto the top bunk and wrapped herself in her blankets. She rolled until she was basically a burrito, then buried her face in the pillow. If she didn't want to go back to her night work, and she couldn't establish a new life as a hero like she wanted…then where did that leave her? What other path was there? Eventually, Mia managed to fall into a fitful sleep, her dreams filled with hands grabbing and pinning her down and doing whatever the hell they wanted.
