Hiya folks! Sorry for the long wait, but here's the chapter! Sorry if anyone seems utterly OOC in this chapter. :o(
Oh, and to those of you who were wondering, the line from BFC was...
"Can I please eat now?"
"I dunno, give it a try..."
During the sushi scene between Bender and Clair. :o)
Disclaimer: Hey you konw taht sudties sohw poelpe can raed snetecnes as lnog as the frist and lsat lteters in a wrod are the smae baecusae we raed wdros as a wohle and not one lteter at a tmie. Naet huh?
I dno't own it popeles :o)
Robot.
"What—what—"He stuttered before he cleared his throat, taking a moment to compose himself. He took a deep, shuttered breath, letting it out shakily. "What did you call me?"
Kori looked at him nervously, his response and behavior throwing her for a complete loop. She squirmed uncomfortably under his intense blue gaze.
"A Robin..." She repeated awkwardly, pushing the tips of her index figures together. "I did not mean any offence... I merely meant that you were a child of spring and the Robin is the bird and—"She began, explaining herself quickly, looking everywhere but at him. Though she could still feel his eyes on her, intense, burning...lost. "I am sorry?" She finally looked at him again, biting her lower lip.
"No...Its- its fine..." He responded distantly, his mind somewhere else. It was Kori's turn to gaze intently, her green eyes searching his and finding...nothing. A strange detachment. "My Mom used to call me that..." He whispered faintly, more to himself than to anyone else. But Kori heard. The room was quiet.
"Richard?" She said, unsure. Kori found her hand reaching for his arm. He sat there, detached, cold, empty...
"I'm fine!" He shouted harshly, Kori pulled back in hurt and surprise, her lips slightly parted, her fingers still reaching for him.
"You are not..." She said softly, still searching, finding no answers.
"Dude, what's up with you?" Garfield questioned eyes narrowed, his tone soft yet harsh as though he knew he was treading on dangerous grounds.
"Nothing," He bit venomously. Victor, Raven and Garfield exchanged glances. Kori however bit her lip as she continued to search Dick's eyes.
With that the mysterious boy jerked down, grabbing his backpack and hoisting it on the desk. He quickly unzipped it and pulled out a longneck, brown, glass bottle.
Kori pursed her lips, eyes narrowed to slits. She had remembered the last time she had seen that bottle. Her sister made her try some once, and ever the naive one, Kori had believed it was a drink called 'Root Beer'.
To make a long story short, it involved a high speed car chase in her sister's sports car, a lot of explaining, much sickness and puking along with her sister being grounded until her parents left the Earth. The main details were still a bit hazy. Probably because of the drink now that she thought about it...
Though, despite the fact she very nearly got Kori arrested, the next day her sister seemed quite fine and guilt free. She was actually quite keen on doing the whole thing over again. Though Kori yelled and reminded her it was forbidden. Her sister responded with, "The best things in life are," Her smug tone and apathy was enough to make Kori want to—
"What. Is. That?" Raven suddenly announced, stiff as a board, her shadowed face cold, eyes narrowed darkly.
Dick held up the bottle smirking, seeming to be back to his normal, jerk-y self, as though the incident with "Robin" hadn't happened.
"What? Fearless Raven scared of the bottle?" Dick taunted lightly, raising his brows and shaking the bottle. Everyone else watched in fear as Raven smoldered under the hood.
"You can ruin your own pathetic life on your own time, but you will not drink that in front of me," Raven said venomously, in a voice that held no argument. Everyone except Dick flinched at the tone.
He sat, face unyielding, but he put the drink back in his backpack none- the- less.
"No need to get emotional," He responded with that smirk of his.
"I am not getting emotional. I don't do emotion." Raven bit back, her voice the epitome of apathy. Dick quirked a brow, Raven continued.
"Emotions are fleeting, useless, and wielded freely. It is easy to lose control," Raven spoke, Kori could see that beneath her cool exterior, something was churning underneath, "When that happens, the strongest of them comes out with full force."
Garfield looked around at everyone incredulously, before turning back to Raven. His awkwardness around her forgotten for the moment.
"What? Love?" He said in disbelief, "Major ice queen," He jerked his thumb toward Raven before continuing. "So that's it, Raven's afraid to—"
"That," Raven cut in darkly, glaring daggers at Garfield, "Is not the strongest emotion,"
Knowing that this wasn't going in a good direction at all, Victor carefully steered Garfield out of dangerous waters, attracting all attention back to Dick.
"So that's what you're in here for?" Victor pointed to the backpack, which contained the bottle.
"I know it's hard for you," Dick responded, "But stop being such an idiot,"
"So now I'm an idiot?" Victor shouted, he couldn't help but loose his temper around this guy, "I'm not the one drinking underage, stuck in detention every day!"
"Who said I was drinking it?! Didn't I tell you to stop being such an idiot!"
"Who said you were drinking it?! You only keep it in your backpack you—"
"And me being in detention! If you hadn't noticed jock strap, you're in here too!" Dick snapped. Victor hardened.
"Only this once. Unlike you, I don't live here,"
"But, you're still here," Dick pointed with a smirk, "Don't you have playoffs?" Victor grit his teeth but said nothing. "So tell me, what's a perfect little jock, doing in detention huh?"
Victor's chocolate eyes clouded over, his expression unreadable, yet vulnerable at the same time.
"All those idiot jocks belong in detention," Garfield finally turned away from Raven and entered the conversation, his voice bitter. He turned to Victor. "Well, you seem okay I guess..." He amended, turning to the dark skinned jock. "What did you do anyway?"
Victor looked from Garfield, still getting this feeling he knew him from somewhere... to Dick, to Kori and to Raven. They were all staring at him, and the weight of guilt that he had ever since 'it' happened came crashing down on him. So hard, not even he could lift it.
And despite the fact he didn't want anyone to know. That he had planned on keeping his 'weakness' locked away, he found the thing he wanted to do the most was tell them all about it. He didn't know why, perhaps because they were strangers, or that they all seemed to be dealing with some problem or another, but he felt that he could tell them things he couldn't tell his friends.
And before he knew it, before he could even stop it, he began to speak.
"You wanna know why I'm here?" He looked up at everyone again. He took the silence as a cue to continue. "I'm here because I was an idiot...and I was caught..." He sat there silently, eyes shut tightly.
After a few moments of silence Dick spoke.
"Well, I'm glad we cleared that up, and here I thought you would be vague,"
Victor continued as though Dick hadn't said anything.
"It was at practice. This kid, he wanted to get in on the scrimmage game right, he was a scrawny little guy..." Victor held his hand up to his chest, indicating 'scrawny'. "Well, me and Atlas, he's captain you know, well, we talked it over and Atlas thought it would be funny to see the guy get pounded. Well, I agreed and we let him play." Victor rubbed his temples, as the rest of the room listened, silent as the grave.
"He was pounded." Victor said bluntly with a small forced smile, "Everyone was callin' him 'grass stain' and pounding him and his stupid purple jersey into the ground like there was no tomorrow. And I just let it happen... He walked back to lockers with a limp. But I was surprised he even made it off the field. " Victor paused again, seeming to compose himself.
Kori seemed to be in shock at what Victor was describing. Garfield had turned stiff as a statue, Dick was listening half-heartedly while Raven was sitting, listening with no clear emotion present.
"So- so we get to the showers right, and the guy, well, he was showerin' and he left his soap bottle on the dividing wall, right in the open see..." Victor rubbed his head and continued on.
"And well, Atlas said he nicked this green dye from science earlier, and Atlas says 'Just do It', right, so I—"
"And you just did it? Just like that?" Garfield interrupted, voice carefully controlled. Victor looked at him painfully as though it was difficult for him to admit himself.
"Well, Atlas... He and my Pop are like this," He crossed two thick fingers together, "And my Dad he well..." He trailed off before clearing his throat and continuing.
"So I—"He looked to the floor. "Well, I made the grass stain, a literal grass stain..."
The room was dead silent. Victor gave a soft little laugh to break the awkwardness he had just created. In his mind, it was worth it though, it felt as though a great weight was being lifted from his shoulders.
He looked up at everyone meekly, waiting for them to say something, anything. The silence was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.
"You heartless, gutless, mindless prick," Garfield finally snapped, his normally cheery face contorted in anger. Victor, as well as everyone else seemed surprised by the outburst. "You—you actually thought that was funny didn't you?"
"I didn't mean to, well you know, I mean—"Victor started sheepishly, it was a strange sight to be sure, the big burly teen cowering slightly to a lanky, awkward boy named Garfield. "I didn't want to be weak..." He muttered finally.
"Didn't want to be—Do you realize—can you even comprehend—"Garfield appeared too angry to even form a complete sentence.
"Do you know what it was like to try and explain to my Mom why I was green on the most important day of her life!?!" He finally snapped, seeming to regain his ability to form sentences.
"Do you know what it was like to see my step-dad's face and eyes on me for the whole ceremony! Or how 'bout what it was like to hear the whispers of what a cruel, heartless boy I was from all my family members! Including my Grandma!"
"My step-dad hates me now! My Mom thinks I did that on purpose! Shows how much faith she has in me, really an eye opener. Knowing that your Mom believes you to be that cruel..." He paused, breathing harshly, "And my hair is still tinted green!" Garfield pointed to his hair positively livid, "And when I was sent to the office, they wouldn't say who did it! That only confirmed my Mom's belief it was me more!"
"I—I, that was—that was you?" Victor squeaked meekly, looking smaller than an ant. That...that was why he looked so familiar... Victor wished the floor would just swallow him up. He was so stupid...
Garfield laughed. A cold, harsh laugh that was very unfitting for him. A sick, disbelieving smile on his face as he shook his head, continuously blinking his green eyes.
"You can't—" He put his hand to his mouth before starting again. "You can't even remember. Couldn't even laugh at me to my face...yeah, you're real strong..."
Victor subdued even more. Kori looked near tears.
"Please, no more mean talking..." She said inaudibly. Dick heard, and cast the red head a gentle glance. No one noticed. He tenderly reached for her shoulder, only to shake his head and retract his hand. Dick quickly turned away with the same unreachable face.
"I'm sorry..." Victor said softly, "You, you don't know my Dad..." His soft vulnerability quickly turned to anger. "He's—he's a mindless, controlling...Aargh!" In a burst of frustration, he banged his fist against the wooden desk with a loud slam that echoed through the bare, empty room. Kori yelped and put her face in her hands. Dick glanced at her helplessly.
"You just don't understand what he's like..." He gritted, turning to Garfield, "He's this mindless robot that—"
"He's not the robot! You are!" Garfield shouted, pointing an angry accusing finger at him. "'He said', 'He told me to', You do anything anyone tells you to! You're a mindless machine like all those other jock clones who can't think for themselves!"
"Look, I know what I did to you was wrong...and cruel... and—"
"Then why did you do it!?!"
"If I didn't...... my Pop would... I would be—" Victor trailed off yet again. Refusing to make eye contact with Garfield.
"Weak?! Is that what you were about to say?! 'Cause, sorry to break it to you but you are the weakest person I have ever met!" Garfield snarled, "I may not be able to hold up eight times my weight but at least I can stand up for what I believe in!"
"You don't know my Dad! You don't know what he's like!"
"And I bet you don't know what it's like to stand up to a group of poachers! Let me tell you it isn't exactly a picnic, but I did it! Why, because it was the right thing to do that's why! And you, you can't even stand up to your friends."
"Enough!!" A voice shouted loudly, growling and glaring harshly at the two. Garfield and Victor turned to face Richard who was standing, his face livid.
The two looked on confused, understanding only when they saw a huddled up version of Kori, crying softly behind Richards somewhat protective stance. Garfield's eyes trailed over to Raven, her book was held tightly in her grasp. Knuckles white, shaking slightly. His green eyes softened.
The room was silent. The only sounds coming from Kori's soft sniffles.
OOO
Solodancer789- Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, hope you enjoy this one as well! :o) I'll do my best to update quickly. :oP
SxStrngSamurai13- Thank you so much! I'm glad you like I it. And yeah, I think the main reason I didn't do it in the library was just so that there were no real distractions in the room. Just them and their problems. :o) A library probably wouldn't have subtracted from that but that's what I was going for at any rate :oP And thanks for being so specific in your review, really helps me know what I'm doin' right and stuff. Thanks for reviewing, hope you liked this chapter!
Luvlifecharm- Thanks :o) I'd like to take credit for how Rob was named, but alas, I cannot. :o( I got it from a website that said that his mom called him that cause he was born on the first of spring and that's how he got the nickname and such, :oP Well, I'm glad you liked, hope you liked this one too. :o) Thanks for reviewing!
Elemental-girl- Yeah, I'm trying to work out all of my writing kinks :oP But yeah, I'm glad you like it :o) Thanks so much for reviewing! :o)
Jemi- Yeah, that's where I got the inspiration for the tofu scene :oP and I agree, mustard is way nasty :oS But yeah, Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up :o( Hope you liked it though. :o) Thanks for reviewing! :o)
StArFiRe-RuLz- Don't worry, Dick is gonna be just fine, until its his turn to spill the beans on his backround. ( coming up either next chp. Or the one after that.) and there's gonna be Rob/Star fluff in that chapter. :oD So don't die on me. ;oP But as for how much time they have left, I'd say they have about five hours left. :o) Thanks for reviewing!
SinFire99- Yeah, BB was a little annoying but ah well, still gotta love him anyway. :oP Hope you liked this chapter :o) Much thanks for your review! :oD
Akami- Thank you! And sorry it took so long :o( Hope you enjoyed the chapter though, thanks for reviewing! :o)
SocialButterfli- Thank you so much! And yeah, you're right, after you mentioned it I remembered about the whole vegan/vegetarian thing. My bad :o( But yeah, BB does say he's a vegetarian so he shall claim the ignorance on that part. :oP And I love to put stuff from the show into the fic! Just little things, I dunno why but I just like doing it for some reason. :oP And Wow! Your favorite authors list? Thanks! I feel special. :oD Well, I'm glad you like it, and sorry this chapter took so long. :o)
Eevee-Shadows- Thank you! Sorry this update took so long, Thanks for reviewing! :o)
CrAzY aUtHoR pErSoN- Thank you! But really, it's not necessary to remove your thumbs. :oP I'm glad you like it so far and thanks for the review! :oD
Blackcoat-245- Thank you, I'm glad you like it! :o) Sorry for takin so long, but here's the update. Hope you enjoyed! :oD
Silverkid- Thanks! Here's the update, Hope you like this one as well. :o) Muchas Gracias for reviewing! :o)
Raven's stalker- Thank you! I'm glad my fic kicks arse :oD But hope you like this chapter, Thanks for reviewing! :oD
Cupcakies- Of course! Don't let the fact that he's a major Dick fool you! :o) But yeah, this will most definitely be a Rob/Star. :o) Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Airhead123- Thank you! I'm glad you like it! Don't worry, I'm going to finish this story :o)
Clouds Halo- Thanks I'll try not to worry about it :o) I'm glad I'm not utterly destroying Raven's character and that the last chapter wasn't ruined by the "moment" :oP And yeah, you can use Mod for your fic no problem :oD You didn't have to ask my permission, I mean it's not like you're full on copying my story (right? :oP j/k) but I appreciate your asking :oD Oh and don't worry about the lengthy reviews, I like long reviews. :oD But, yeah, thanks for reviewing! Sorry it took so long, considering you asked permission and I feel bad for not giving you an answer sooner. But, thanks again! Hope you liked this chapter. :o)
Freaky Person O.o- Oh, about the spare line, I meant that BB wouldn't be getting a milk because he's a vegan/vegetarian and so there would be a spare. By Raven smashing it, she would be getting rid of it. :o) Just to clear that up. Don't worry, more fluff to come in later chapters. :o) Hope you enjoyed this chapter. :o)
Lil' LIK Star- Thanks! Here's the update, sorry it took so long. Thanks for reviewing! :o)
Blonde Shadowcat- Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, I really enjoyed writing it. :o) Hope you liked this chapter as well, thanks for reviewing. :o)
A lil' like Raven- Thank you! Sorry didn't mean to leave you in suspense! (or did I? ooh eee ooh) um yeah...Anyhow, I'm glad you liked it! Hope you enjoy this chapter as well! :o) Thanks for the review!
Lilstarblossom- Thank you! And no, just a long trek of awkward silence :oD I'm glad you like it, though more light will be shed on the Robin thing either the next chapter or the one after that. :o) Hope you liked this one! :oD Thanks for reviewing!
Ninjamonkey- Thank you! Yeah, all the characters are soon to explain themselves. :oP Hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for reviewing! :o)
Jadefire- Yeah, think they're a lot like each other in the show as well, BB and Starfire being the other characters that are like each other. And Cy well, er, I suppose a mix between them? :oP Poor Cy, he never gets any love. :o( Anyhow, I'm glad you liked the chapter! Hope you liked this one as well. Boy were you right about awkwardness and pain :oP But yeah, Thanks for reviewing and Cool! I'm cool! :oD
Rose- Other than the fact I am a little unnerved by the angry mob congregating outside your window, I thank you for reviewing and having them throw away the gross hot dog videos :oP But yeah, thanks for reviewing! Sorry 'bout the cliffy. :o) Hope you enjoy this chapter, I wish to appease the mob. :oP
Lost Inside- 20/10? Wow thanks! :oD I hope you enjoyed this chapter and it lives up to that standard. :o) Thanks so much for reviewing!
Spazzfire- Sorry bout the cliffy! I apologize for my cruelness :oP Laughing out loud at that last statement. :oD Thanks for the review! I hope you liked this chapter!
Chica- Hooray for cookies! I'm glad I cleared that up for ya. Sorry it took so long to update, hope you enjoyed this chapter! :o)
Kazuko Aeko- Thank you! I'm glad you liked it, sorry it took so long for this chapter, Hope you enjoyed it :o) Thanks for reviewing!
Starxfire- Thank you! And to answer your Q, Dick had ham. He takes a bite out of it when telling BB about how he won't stop people from eating meat. :o) Why ham you ask? I got it from the episode "The Beast Within" I think that's what its called... but yeah :o) sorry it took so long for the update, hope you liked it :oD
Al leon- Thanks for the review! I'm glad you like it thus far!
Misunderstoodgirl- Sorry for taking so long to update, but yeah, when you get your story up I'll do my best to R&R. :o) I'm rarely ever on the net anymore thanks to sports and school, but I'll do my best. :oD Thanks for reading! Hope you liked this chapter! :o)