Warning: The cuss words I've been warning about appear in this chapter. There's only one or two, but if they bother you, please don't read on. Thanks to SamIAm for all the help, and rain1657 for the kind reviews.
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A man with brown hair and an average face slowly circled the elementary school. The traffic was terrible, and there were hardly any places to park. He didn't mind; it helped his cover. He was able to (forced to, even) drive slowly enough to watch the children as they played or were picked up by their parents. He took one hand off the steering wheel and handled his knife as he drove past.
A large blue car suddenly pulled away from the curb, cutting him off. The man's hand tightened around the knife hidden between the seats of his car, but he fought down the urge to scream obscenities. A mother in a van politely waited for him to take the parking spot vacated by the blue car.
It annoyed him, but he forced himself to smile. He had to take his hand off his knife to wave her forward. The woman smiled at him and gave a little wave as she pulled into the parking space. A little girl saw the car and went into the passenger side door. The man looked through the school gates as he waited for the mother in the van to pull back out again.
He recognized many of the children from his previous visits, was even able to put names to many of them, but they didn't pay him any attention. He saw parents and teachers talking to one another, occasionally casting wary glances around, as if they were looking for him.
They probably were.
It only testified to his genius and their stupidity that they hadn't recognized him for what and who he was. Having seen him driving around the school so often, they all assumed that he had a child attending. No one noticed that he drove around and around without stopping. After all, it was notoriously difficult to find a parking space just as school was letting out. How were they to tell the difference between him and a hundred other adults picking up students?
For a good half hour, he circled the school as the traffic thinned. The children who were left went back into classrooms for after school programs or sat next to the sign posted at the front of the school as they waited for late rides. These were the children he was most interested in, but none of them looked familiar.
Still, he found himself being drawn to one little boy... He circled the block once more as he considered his options. He didn't know his name so he wouldn't be able to pull his usual trick, but others had worked in the past as well. He could invite the boy to ice cream or ask for help finding a lost puppy.
As he drove past the front of the school once more, he caught another look at the boy. He didn't look too smart. It would probably work.
He started to look for a place to park, and it was only then that he noticed a dark haired man whom he had previously assumed to be a teacher confronted by several other adults. The hand around his knife tightened spasmodically, as he watched the scene enfold with rapt interest.
He looked forward to see where he was going, and saw a lamppost looming straight in front of him. He jammed on his brakes and yanked the steering wheel to the left with one hand, refusing to take the other one away from his knife. The bumper of his car scraped along the pole, but he didn't think there was any damage. He didn't care, anyway. Slowing his car, he turned back around to see what was happening in front of the school.
The dark haired man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a badge. He was an undercover cop! In horror, the man realized that if the cop had the decency to tell the school officials what was happening, then he would've been arrested by then. Still, as he drove away, he couldn't help smiling.
They were finally catching on.
That made it interesting.
Dinah's heart was pounding hard in her chest as she listened to the last bell ring, ending the school day. 'Why did I tell Gabby all of that? She probably thinks I'm crazy, now. I bet she doesn't even believe me. I don't blame her. The whole stupid thing sounds like it's off a soap opera. These are the days of my life...'
Everyone else was already moving towards the door, but Dinah hardly stirred.
She figured she was the first person in all of history who wanted the school day to last longer... and she had for two days in a row.
Maybe she was crazy, after all.
She took as long as humanly possible to get her things put away. When no one was looking, she dumped everything back out and started the process over again. Mr. Goodwin frowned at her and crossed his arms impatiently, as he waited for her to finish.
The sight was intimidating, but that was what Dinah was counting on. Gabby would never venture inside the classroom, and if she just took long enough, maybe her friend would think that she had already left. As she put her last book in her bag, she tried to catch a glimpse of the hallway beyond the door.
Mr. Goodwin caught the glance and followed it with his eyes, leaning forward a little as he turned to his left.
While her teacher was looking the other direction, Dinah dumped everything from her bag for the second time.
Gabby was still waiting with her shoulder against the wall across from her friend's classroom. Math was one of Dinah's worst subjects, and Mr. Goodwin wasn't exactly the nicest teacher, but surely he wouldn't have kept her this late.
She frowned in anxiety as the minutes stretched on. 'Maybe Dinah already left,' she thought to herself. She only entertained the thought for a few seconds before shaking it away. Dinah had detention after school, and it really wasn't her style to skip it. Besides, she had seemed so worried about what Ms. Gordon would do if she got angry that Gabby was sure she wouldn't ditch.
Gabby's frown deepened as she thought of Ms. Gordon. Sure, she was strict, but Dinah had always insisted that she was much cooler outside of school... and she had certainly never acted afraid of her when Gabby was around. Was Ms. Gordon acting differently since Dinah's mom came back or was Dinah the one acting different? She kind of figured it was a bit of both, but, in any case, her best friend was certainly terrified.
Gabby turned so that her back was against the wall and leaned against it as she considered. She didn't want to get Dinah into any trouble, but she wanted to make sure that Ms. Gordon hadn't turned psycho or something. Gabby had known a girl once, whose parents had hurt her badly. She had always wondered why she didn't see that anything was wrong...
Patrick said hi as he walked passed, and Gabby waved back at him absently. The hall was already beginning to clear out. As Patrick went out the big doors at the front of the school, Gabby suddenly realized that she was the only student left. There were probably more somewhere, but they had all reached their tutoring sessions or detentions or sports... or whatever it was that people did at a school after classes. Gabby usually didn't wait around, so she wasn't really sure.
Dinah had seemed worried that Ms. Gordon wouldn't let her live with her more than anything else... but still... It was hard to tell about those things. What if Dinah was being hurt?
Her mind made up, Gabby stood up straight and walked resolutely to Ms. Gordon's classroom. She found the redhead clearing the board as the last of her students left.
"Ms. Gordon?" she asked.
"Gabby," Barbara said, smiling and maneuvering her chair farther away to erase something about the nature of truth. "What can I do for you?"
Gabby tilted her head a little, trying to gauge the teacher's character. "I was supposed to meet Dinah, but I just remembered that I told my mom I'd go straight home to help her with something," she lied smoothly, trying not to implicate her friend in case she was ditching.
An idea struck her as she stood there, and she had to resist the temptation to smile evilly. "Could you tell her that I can't go shopping with her today like I said at lunch, and that we can go tomorrow after her detention?"
"Oh, the two of you are going shopping?" Barbara asked, stopping in mid erase. To Gabby, she seemed surprised, but pleased and almost relieved.
"Yeah, is that okay?"
"Of course," Barbara assured her, getting back to the board. "I'm glad that she feels like going out. She's been rather depressed lately." There was no mistaking the lingering concern in her voice.
"Yeah, no kidding," Gabby said, no longer suspicious of the redhead. "She told me about her mom today."
Barbara smiled in relief, once again turning to the teenager. Maybe Dinah was finally beginning to admit her grief for her mother and anger towards Al Hawke. "She must really trust you," she said, looking at Gabby seriously. "I don't think she's told anyone else about it. It's good that she has you to be there for her."
Gabby smiled in pride. "Thanks. You'll tell her about shopping?" she asked, blissfully aware that she had covered for her friend's absence, reassured herself that Ms. Gordon wasn't hurting her, and probably tricked her friend into at least talking with her again. She figured that Dinah would probably go to the mall with her if only to avoid disappointing her guardian... and even if Dinah didn't want to come, she still had to talk to her to tell her that she wasn't coming, right?
"I'll let her know," Ms. Gordon reassured her.
As Gabby walked away, she couldn't help thinking to herself, 'I am good!'
By the time Dinah left the classroom, Mr. Goodwin was openly glaring at her, his arms crossed angrily in front of him. His face had turned red, and Dinah couldn't help but picture smoke coming out of his ears.
Laughing at the mental picture did not make Mr. Goodwin any less mad.
Which only made his face turn even more red and made her laugh harder.
Recognizing a situation that could only get worse, she hurried out of the class so quickly that she was almost running and made her way to her detention. She thought that she would probably stop by Barbara's class and let her know that she wanted to walk home again. She was about to step in, when she recognized Gabby's voice. She stopped herself just in time and ducked out of a direct line of sight.
As she tried not to panic, thinking of ways to get passed the door without her friend noticing, bits of conversation drifted towards her.
"She's been rather depressed lately," she heard Barbara say.
"Yeah, no kidding. She told me about her mom today."
Dinah's eyes shot wide open as she realized that Gabby was telling Barbara about their conversation at lunch. She panicked at the thought of Barbara's reaction even as her heart broke at her friend's betrayal.
Dinah was suddenly nauseous and her heart started beating rapidly. She began to tremble from the combined effects of adrenaline and raw terror. Quickly, she steeled herself against the emotions raging through her body and walked the direction opposite her detention, back the way she had come. She was full out running by the time she reached the school doors.
Once outside, she slowed and began to take deep breaths to calm herself. She walked around the outside of the school to one of the side entrances and went back in to make her way to the classroom in which the detention would be held by the assistant principal. The class was half full already, and just about everyone who was going to show up was there. The assistant principal was sitting behind the desk in front of the room doing some paperwork and looked up when Dinah entered. He looked up at the clock, and she found her gaze following fearfully.
3:13. She still had two minutes. The assistant principal looked back at her and gestured vaguely towards the desks in the room, and went back to his work. As she quickly made her way to a table at the back of the room, she didn't notice the two football players she was walking between until it was too late.
"Freak," one of them muttered.
"Bitch," the other one said quietly. "Don't think we've all forgotten what you did to Rick and John."
"Why, you jealous, boys?" she said just as quietly, not even slowing.
Her already rapidly beating heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest as she continued making her way to a seat in the back of the room. What if the assistant principal heard her? What if he told Barbara? What if Barbara thought she was making more trouble?
And what was up with that comeback? It sounded like something Helena would say.
What would happen when the football team followed through on its promises? She had no doubt that some of the guys would try something, and she was sure she could handle herself... but what if Barbara kicked her out for getting into another fight? She quickly sat herself down in the back of the classroom and folded her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking.
Had Gabby told Barbara everything? 'Oh, man, why did I tell Gabby? Barbara's going to think that I don't trust her or that I'm ungrateful or that I can't handle what's going on. Maybe Christina was right and I should have told them all everything from the beginning.'
Dinah ran a hand through her hair and sighed in frustration. 'Yeah, like that would've helped! I told them that I didn't want to go with Canary and Barbara made me go anyway. They were going to let her take me away. And now she has anyway, because Barbara and Helena still won't let me help and they don't want me. Canary was just like the Redmonds! They couldn't stand my powers and she thought they weren't enough. Geez! What if Barbara and Helena send me back to the Redmonds?'
'Hold up, Dinah, remember what Barbara always says. Clear head. You can figure this out. You've got an hour before Barbara picks you up.' The blonde took several deep, cleansing breaths, and her hands slowly began to quit shaking.
She needed to be calm. She needed a plan.
