What You Need By Margarita Neko

Chapter 3: Wednesday/Computers

The next day at lunch, Cy and Raven were already at the table when I arrived. Raven was reading as she ate, and Cy... Well, Cy looked like he was trying to viciously maim his pudding with a plastic spoon.

"Either that pudding did something really cruel and unusual to you, or something's wrong," I said as I sat down. He looked up from his poor, tortured dessert, scowling.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked with a sigh. I just nodded, and Raven actually put down her book long enough to shoot him a "duh" look.

"So... You gonna spill, or do I hafta blackmail it out of you?" I asked. I had some pretty good dirt on him, too, so it wasn't exactly an idle threat. He groaned.

"That'd make my day just perfect, y'know that?" he said grumpily. "Ah, oh well... I'm failing history. Again. Man, do you have any idea how much my parents will kill me if I come home with another failing grade? Lemme tell ya, it'll be a massacre. Plus, an F in history means no more football."

Ah, the history issue again. Cy had gone through more tutors for that single subject in his three years at high school than any other member of the football team had in their entire life, and most of the time he just barely got through with a C-. Poor guy.

I sighed. "Hey, man, I'm sorry. I'd help, but you know, I'm not exactly doing so great in history myself. Morris is tough."

Mr. Morris was our history teacher. He was a really tough grader, and he gave tons of homework. And not even, like, worksheets, either. We had a five-page essay due at least once a week. I was generally a straight- A student, but even I could just barely keep a B in his class.

Cy shrugged. "It's okay," he said, and then stared off thoughtfully. "I guess... If I can't pull my grades up by the end of the term, I can always take... Desperate measures..."

My eyes widened slightly as I realized what he was talking about. "Dude... Have you got any idea how much trouble you can get into for that?" I reprimanded incredulously.

"Getting into trouble involves getting caught, man, and I definitely do not intend on getting caught," he said, some pride tingeing the edge of his voice. And I admit, he had reason to be proud. He was good. But he still shouldn't be risking this. "Besides, I'm willing to take the chance if it means I'll live to see college."

"Cy, I know your parents are tough and all, but God... That's *illegal*..." I said, trying to get him to drop this idea before he became too fond of it. "And besides, there's always gonna be a tiny chance that you *will* get caught. Have you even thought about how much more dead you'll be if you get in trouble for *hacking?*"

"Dude! You can hack?"

My eyes widened, and Cy sent a really pissed off look my way. Whirling around, I came face to face with Gar. He and Starfire, who was next to him, must have arrived just in time to hear me announce that Cy was a hacker. Shit.

"Well?" Gar asked again, looking to Cy for confirmation. "Can you hack?"

Cy sighed, nodding an affirmation. He looked pretty pissed. He really hated people finding out about his secret computer geekiness. Hell, if Raven and I hadn't found him building a computer in his garage one day, we wouldn't even have know about it ourselves. We'd laughed at him a little, because it was weird to see such a jock so into computers and stuff, but besides that we'd been pretty supportive of his little secret (though we all agreed it was kind of geeky). So, needless to say, he must have been really surprised when Gar's response was...

"Dude! That is *SO* cool!"

Cy blinked. "What're you talking about?" he asked, irritated, but the pissed off look seemed to have been replaced by doubt.

"C'mon, man, how many people do you know that can do that?" Gar asked excitedly. "I mean... The FBI probably uses people like you on top secret missions and junk!"

Starfire chose this moment to pipe up, cutting off any protests that Cy may have had. "I am confused," she said, looking around for any sort of explanation. "What is 'hacking?'"

"It means he can go into computers and change files around and stuff," Gar supplied, still grinning wildly. "Isn't that so cool?"

"So, you wish to go into a computer and change the file with your grades of history in it?" she asked Cy, who nodded. "But that is wrong! You must *earn* your grades!"

"But it's still cool, right Star?" Gar asked.

Starfire thought for a moment. "If not used for the purposes of evil, then yes, it is very cool," she decided finally.

The three of us were just staring at them in disbelief. Didn't they know that only *nerds* could program and hack into computers and stuff? Where the hell had these guys come from?

Finally, Cy spoke up. "Dude, what are you guys talking about?" he asked incredulously. "I don't know what it's like where you come from, but around here, that depth of computer knowledge is a sure-fire sign of a geek!"

"Yeah, but that's only because most computer nerds don't have the guts to do something like hacking!" Gar told him. "Hacking... Now that's just plain awesome!"

Now, even I was beginning to see that Gar was making a pretty good point, and I actually found myself wondering if, maybe, things weren't so clear-cut as computers defining geeks. Cy, however, didn't look too convinced quite yet. In fact, I'm sure he would have kept arguing if Gar hadn't cut him off.

"So, who taught you?" he asked as he took a big bit out of his apple.

Cy bristled slightly, as if the idea of being taught offended him. "I taught myself, man!" he said defensively. "I bought the books, I did the work, and I learned the stuff, all on my own."

Gar wrinkled his brow and did that head-tilt thing again. "But, dude..." he started. "You could seriously get a killer job with those skills if you took some classes... Y'know, so that you have credits to show to colleges or whatever. Isn't there a computer class or two in this school?"

"I am NOT going to ruin my reputation by taking a computer class!" Cy informed him forcefully. "Besides, I'm in Tech Ed, so I can still do something I like in college, without computers. It doesn't matter."

"But still..." Gar protested. "Books can't teach you everything. I'm sure there's a lot more out there that you could use, even if it is just a pastime..."

"Listen, kid, no is no!" Cy growled, a sort of finality in his voice that even Gar could catch. He dropped the issue, and turned back to his lunch, sullen but thoughtful. That scared me. He did some weird things when he started thinking.

After a few minutes, he got up and left lunch early, with no explanation but the determined look on his face.

~*~

Because it was Wednesday today, all of us had our after-school activities and clubs again: Fencing for me, football for Cy, and swimming for Raven. Afterwards, good timing hooked Raven and me up outside the gym, and we both went to grab Cy for the tortures of football practice, figuring we could leave together and get a pizza or something. Cy was always hungry after his practices (they really took up a ton of energy), so he was only too happy to agree.

However, as soon as we got out the front door of the school, we realized that our chow session would have to wait a little while. Gar was sitting on one of the school benches, chatting amiably with some older guy, probably in his late twenties or so, with blond hair and blue eyes. Starfire was there, too, picking dandelions and weaving them into a wreath.

Gar spotted us quickly, and grinned in our direction, waving his arms. "Hey guys!" he yelled out, catching the attention of Starfire and the older guy. "C'mere! There's someone I want you to meet!"

We looked at each other confusedly for a moment, and then I shrugged and began walking towards them. Cy and Raven followed, though they both seemed kind of ticked. Truth be told, I was too, but I'd already resigned myself to the fact that if I didn't oblige, Gar would hunt me down.

"This is Mr. Thompson!" Gar introduced cheerfully. "He's my next door neighbor. Mr. Thompson, this is Robin, Raven, and Cy."

This Mr. Thompson nodded at each of us, but I noticed that his gaze lingered on Cy a moment longer. Then, he turned back to Gar.

"So, he's the one?" he asked, nodding in Cy's direction.

Gar nodded, his dopey, excited grin still in place. "Yup! He says he's really good, too!"

By now, I was pretty sure I knew what they were talking about, and I think Raven did too, but Cy still seemed confused.

"Uh... Excuse me?" Cy asked, a puzzled look on his face.

Mr. Thompson turned back to him and held out a hand, smiling in a friendly manner. "Pleased to meet you. Garfield has told me quite a bit about your skills."

Gar winced a little at the use of his full name, and Cy just stared blankly. "Skills? What do you mean?"

"I teach a computer class at the Jump University," Thompson explained. "Gar told me that you were quite good, but afraid of losing your popularity from becoming too 'nerdy.' He thought that if you were to take some private lessons with me, then you could keep your reputation and perfect your skills at the same time, and it could even go on your college applications if I vouched for you."

Cy shot a glare at Gar, who just grinned and waved cheerfully. Sighing in exasperation, he looked back to Thompson.

"Look, Mr. Thompson," he began. "It's really nice of you to offer to do this for me and everything, but... I really don't have the time. I'm failing history, and I've got a huge test next week, plus football practice- "

"We can plan sessions around your practice, and as for your problem with history... Well, Garfield told me about that, too," Thompson said, and Gar smiled sheepishly, shooting an apologetic glance at Cy. "You see, my wife is a history teacher, and she runs a tutoring business after school. She's really good, too. I've seen her bring failing students up to honors classes. And... It just so happens that she has an open spot that shouldn't coincide with your football practice. So, if you want, you can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I'll even make the tutoring free, if you agree to the computer classes."

Cy seemed quite surprised by this, and he just nodded blankly. "I... I'll think about it," he managed to mutter out eventually.

Thompson smiled and held out a business card. "Well, give me a call when you decide," he said, before turning to all of us. "Pleased to meet all of you, and thank you for your time. You may now go back to whatever you were doing before I came and started bugging you."

Then he turned and walked away, before hopping into a silver SUV in the parking lot and heading off down Main Street. Gar waved, hopping up and down on the bench and laughing cheerfully long after the car was out of sight.

I sighed and grabbed one of his arms. "Stop it," I told him firmly. "You're making a fool of yourself."

He just laughed at me. "But it's fun being stupid, man!" he told me giddily.

"You shouldn't be butting into other people's lives so much," I scolded him. "It's weird."

A more serious look came to his face, replacing his silly grin with a thoughtful smile. "Maybe I like being weird," he suggested. "And besides..."

He paused here, glancing over to where Starfire was making her dandelion wreaths. I followed his gaze. Raven was there now, as well, inviting Starfire to the pizza place with us as the redhead placed a wreath of the colorful weeds on each of their heads. Strangely enough, Raven didn't protest to this. She actually seemed... Kind of happy.

"...Can you really say I've been wrong so far?" Gar finished softly, smiling at the sight of the two friends.

I sighed in defeat. Even I had to admit, what he'd done for Starfire and Raven had worked out pretty well, and it seemed like the same would happen with Cy. However, I couldn't let him off that easily.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him.

He turned to me, this really creepy, unreadable expression on his face, as if he was looking into my soul and reading it like a book. I shuddered. Thankfully, it was only there for a second, and then his overly cheerful grin was back in place, but his answer to my question was almost as odd as that look had been.

"I'm just giving them what they need."

~*End Chapter Three*~

Author's Notes: Eh... Not too happy with this chapter. Real plot starts in the next chapter, but I warn you: There will be Gar in a dress. ^.^

Reviews:

Shadow Avenger: Ehhh... Thank you for the nice Oprah quoting... O.o And I'm planning on updating daily, so that the story follows real time (Y'know, Monday, Tuesday... Today's chapter is Wednesday... Blah.), just so y'know. ^.^

WereWolfHowl: Unfortunately, Raven doesn't really come in that much more in this story... More Gar-centric after this. ^.^ I gave him a tragic past! Whoo! Go me! (Not that he didn't have one in the actual series... O.o)

R&R, please! ^.^