-note- Ahh.. I'm rushing. I have a NYSMA festival tomorrow. I hope that I do well… hehe. prays please let me do well. So there isn't much for me to say. I shall just write the chapter now. For writing thisI feel so unoriginal…

-dedication- This one's for Rose. You're a great reviewer and we all LOOOVE you:-d I would have done it for your birthday but I already have another birthday that week. It's funny, but you have the exact same birthday as my friend Caitlyn. Anyways, hope you like the chapter!

Chapter Eleven
"And now, playing her… knife? … Well, anyway, here she is, Maria Christina-Lucia, Private Eye!"
A brunette walked up onto the stage, making sure that she stopped the man who had announced her, none other than our favourite waiter John, and mentioned to him before he got off,
"You forgot the hyphen!"
After she had arrived to the center of the stage, a very serious look appeared on her face and she announced, this time to the audience,
"Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight I give you a special performance – I will play the Teen Titans theme song!"
A few people hesitantly snapped in response, but the biggest came from the back. About three water bottles were being shaken around so that all could hear the water sploosh in them, all by none other than a blonde and red haired teen sitting in a back corner of the café with a laptop sitting on the table in front of her.
Maria took out her 'instrument,' a black, cafeteria plastic knife, and placed it on the edge of the stool (set up for people who want to sit while they read poetry etcetera) and, after a long silence, began to twang it.
Such is the sound of the knife playing the Teen Titans theme song that you cannot imagine.
Apparently Robin and Starfire couldn't either. They swooped in the front door and came to a stop at the stage…
(to be continued/concluded)

"What brand do you use?"

"That's a fashion secret. If I told you the whole world would find out and I would be doomed." (I love that word. Doom. DOOM DOOM DOOM!... Okay. Back to the story)

"Oh come on, it won't hurt anybody. If you tell me I'll tell you what I use for mine."

The black haired teen scrunched up his face, wiggling one of his cheekbones for a moment in thought. Then he must have decided that it was okay because he replied,

"Well at first I just loaded up on as cheap hair gel as I could. I mean, it does cost a lot to put so much in your hair all the time. But then I asked Raven and she found a bottle of rubber cement for me. It stays in for a week before it even begins to get flimsy."

"Wow. I just stick with the hair gel. But don't you have enough money to be paying for it?"

"That's a fashion secret too."

Thoughtfully, the other boy changed the subject. "You know," he pondered aloud, "Kori looked really good today. I think she did something with her hair."

Mind you, Kori had not even brushed her hair this morning. She had first banged the hairbrush on the dresser for what reasons we do not know, afterward chewing on the handle with the rage of a million suns, finally ending her assault with throwing it against the wall and telling it, quite forcefully, in her Tamaranian language that it was a "nasty blow pop fish." Well I am not sure if that is the correct translation, but it is the closest I can get with my very limited Tamaranian dialect.

Two pairs of darkened glasses met with an almost maniacal feel behind them. But both of them were not feeling for the same reason. One, our first speaker who we know and hate as Speedy, was in a spiteful manner. He knew that just by brining up the foreign girl in the other's presence could be deadly. The other, who was, if you haven't guessed, Dick Grayson, was in a more protective way. Even so, they were both a little annoyed.

"Of course," Dick nonchalantly stated, pretending like it didn't matter, "You don't mean that she doesn't look good every day."

If his eyes could be seen behind his glasses, Speedy's probably would have been bulging. "No!" he said quickly, not quite as self assured anymore, "She looks AMAZING all the time! I just meant –"

The raven haired boy stepped up closer to the other, a bit of an insane grin on his face. "Just drop it."

"What's up with you guys?"

The two turned only with their heads, not moving the rest of their bodies, to see the speaker. It was Achilles, and, when they heard what he had said, they realized that they looked – just a LITTLE bit strange. Dick was almost standing over Speedy in threat, and the other boy cowered a wee bit more in fear.

"Oh, nothing," Speedy stepped back from Dick and stood up tall, "Just a little friendly rivalry."

Achilles shrugged, and spoke again, even more careless sounding than he had before.

"Vesta," he said, moving his head a little bit to indicate the direction in which to look to see her, "wanted a milkshake and decided that she needed it otherwise she'd die. So she convinced everybody else to go too. And that basically means that you two have to go too. Girls are so weird."

"Uh…"

Both of the other teens said this at the same time, exchanging a bit of a nervous glance. Dick spoke for the both of them, not quite sure what to say to all that. It was probably the biggest speech either of them had ever heard Achilles say in the entirety of their knowing him.

"Okay?"

All of the girls, excepting their good buddy (coughhackcough) Winter, stood or sat at the side of the bleachers, waiting to get going. Vesta may have convinced everyone to go to McDonalds, but that does not mean that she could get anyone moving quickly. Every so often someone would scratch an ear or take a deeper breath than they were before and yawn it out a bit, but other than that it was pretty much a bore. All they were doing was talking about what they had done for vacations.

"I went to a basketball camp on scholarship. They probably won't accept me if I apply again – it isn't like I'm any good." Betty was sitting on the grass, pulling one of the green plants apart strand by strand. She said this wistfully, almost whiny, and a little quietly - no one really heard her.

Except Emily, that is. She didn't sit on the grass; instead she was behind the African American girl on the bottom white metal bleacher. She responded, "I ran away from home over the summer, and I lived with wolves for a month or so." She ended her little speech with a sob.

The dirty blonde haired girl who was standing beside her; the one who had been craving milkshakes earlier, added onto the conversation, "I love wolves! They're my favourite kind of dog!"

At this, Emily's head shot up. Her eyes had a look of fury in her eyes that were not there before. She had been looking as though she was terrified to just be looked at wrong before, but now she was back to her old self – at least for the moment.

"Wolves are not dogs."

There was an amount of testiness in her voice that would not normally be toyed with by a normal person, but Vesta didn't seem to care. She said, thoughtfully,

"They're in the dog family."

The blonde sprung up on the other, not physically attacking her but getting really close to her. Her physical space invaded, even by a girl who was almost a foot shorter than her, Vesta leaned back a little bit. Raven looked prepared to jump in and stop the two should any fights break out.

"The Canis Lupis, also known to most humans as the wolf, is a member of the canine family they-"

"Stop talking," Kori snapped before adding, "Please". She was standing as well, but she looked like she was in a very bad mood. She turned back to her other conversation.

Emily immediately went back into her original reclusive state. "Okay," she murmured.

Rayne pouted a little bit, watching the other girls out of the corner of her eye as she spoke to Kori, who, though a little bit snappish, was not speaking hostilely to her.

"Why didn't I get to do anything this summer? No, I did a lot this summer. I was only in one play! It was a stupid play and I got a stupid – no I didn't, I loved it."

Rayne rambled on about this for a few moments before Kori said, "What is it you're complaining about with many different sides to it?"

She did not answer for, at that moment, Winter came running up with a few things held in her arms to her chest. One was, unmistakably, the notebook which had reappeared under Rayne's bed, another was a bottle of water, which probably came from her room, and the other was a small plastic bottle.

"Here," she huffed, taking off the lid from the container which could now be read to say 'Midol,' "Take one of these and wash it down with water. I'm not going anywhere with y'all PMSing all over."

This line must have been funny, because Raven choked up the water she had just swallowed as she began to laugh… and laugh… and laugh.

Some people have imaginations to keep themselves amused. Some just bite down into a good book or fanfiction. Others, I'm sorry to say, generally the ones with less functioning brain waves, just watch television.

Garfield and Victor could not drag either of their televisions out into the football field, so, in a desperate attempt to keep their minds from becoming – oh no! the evil! – bored, they now stood huddled over the miniature screen of Victor's PSP and drank in the fluorescent fake light from it.

"Why aren't WE on a starship?" Garfield asked suddenly, tearing both of them away from the alternate reality they found themselves in while they watched the show, "Or at least in some really cool HQ with a window that turns into a really big TV?"

Victor shrugged, much more careless to where they lived.

"I already have a big TV," he said simply.

The green boy looked back at the PSP and began to drool, seeing something completely amazing. "Your telly's nothing compared to…" he shoved the pre-recorded commercial ad on the screen at his dark skinned friend, "The Titan-gamestation-Dvd-Jimeishjekahlemansicklembuh-DELUXE-point-6-4-5-2-1."

The ad showed the exact television that the Titans had built into their common room window. It is a small world; isn't it? Well, at least we know what model it is now. Onward and upward, we go.

While the boys began to worship and adore the advertised product, the rest of the teens decided that it was time to go.

"We're LEAVING!" Winter called, running ahead as the rest began to walk slowly.

Victor and Gar just walked slowly behind them; their own little huddled mass over the PSP's little screen and the ad for the perfect television. I salute you, model Americans.

The sound of grease sizzling the fries to the desirable temperature, the people shouting into their microphones and headsets and just in general, and the din of simply people around lunchtime at McDonalds is not a very comforting mix of sounds. So the friends did their best to get out of the line and into as obscure a table that they could as soon as possible.

"The tables are disgusting…" Emily whined a little bit. It was true; the interior of the fast food restaurant looked as though its last visitors were a large group of toddlers - without mommies to clean up after them.

Raven, almost naturally in her monotone replied, "Why don't you… complain?"

"They'd get mad at me…"

Conversation faded in and out like this throughout the first few minutes of them sitting there, nibbling on their food, sucking on see-through plastic straws (unfortunately not the bendy kind or the brightly coloured kind) the calorie infested food and drink which they serve at these places.

Winter stretched her arms above her head and yawned, tired of the conversation they were having - not that any of them were really talking. Well, she really was just tired in general. You tend to become so when you are up at the crack of early morning dawn to look for the notebook which cannot be found when you have been up half the night. (yep. I know this from experience.) She whispered something to Emily, whose eyes lit in a mischievous happiness.

"Hey Dick," the blonde chided gleefully, "Did you bring your towel and spandex with you?"

Most other eyes looked at her strangely, dully, not knowing what in the world she meant, but Vesta, then Rayne, caught on. Dick took a few more moments to get it, but once he did it only took him a couple extra seconds to become his 'cool' self again.

"The Big Macs are calling you," Rayne said, "They're calling for the Bird Boy Wonder."

Raven cracked up, although she still probably didn't understand a word that they were saying. She laughed until she was doubled over; laughed until her hair was messy and the rest of the populus of McDonalds was staring at her, and until she began to cough away the giggles and wipe away her happiness caused tears. Obviously her Midol hadn't kicked in quite yet.

Garfield patted her back nervously, not sure exactly how to react to her outburst, but when she sat up, stark serious, he backed off immediately to allow her to cool down.

All attention returned to Rich Grayson, who, after a moment, became uncomfortable. Vesta raised her eyebrows in question to him, and he huffed a bit of a sigh.

"Do you guys have lives?"

Kori leaned over on the spiky haired teen's shoulder, falling asleep. Just earlier that morning she would have snapped horridly at the girls for teasing Dick but right now apathy seemed to be bliss.

"Nah."

Emily held out a chicken nugget to Garfield, holding it under his nose and making him see it – sniff it – just to tease him. It was driving him crazy; crazy enough to not notice the conversation going on around him.

"No!" he cried, trying to push away the nugget o' white without actually touching it. He tried many ways. One being blowing on it, another pushing away Emily's hand with his foot – the list goes on, and it didn't work. Raven probably would have protected him, even just a little bit, on a normal day but, as I look at Raven trying to keep a straight face a few feet away, I realize that she just wasn't up to it. So, on a slightly more 'happy' note, let us return to the conversation with Dick.

"So, Mr. Grayson," Vesta almost sang (she wasn't really singing, mind you. If that were the case it would not have been quite as on key as this was), "Do you care to try that game again? I'm sure we could find a dare fit for you this time."

Dick slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand repeatedly. He would have probably hit his head on the table had Kori's own not been on his shoulder, but since it was and she seemed to be (kind of) peacefully asleep, he settled for hitting with his hand.

"Not on my life," he said, not giving any room for compromise, "That was the stupidest game I've ever played."

Betty leaned over to Victor, who was eating every meaty substance he had bought – meaning he was eating quite a lot.

"I bet," she whispered, "That they're gonna try to start the game up again."

Vic shrugged and mumbled through a mouthful of food, "So? As long as I don't have to be a sissy girl again…"

Gar edged his chair away from Emily. "Save me," he whispered to Vic while he moved his chair on the other side of the big African American guy.

"Um," Victor just raised his eyebrows a little bit. It wasn't much of his choice; Garfield had already moved, "If you want to."

It wasn't until after he moved that he realized his mistake. Victor quite a lot more meat than just one lousy chicken nugget…

Vesta pouted when Dick gave his answer. If he wasn't going to play then who… A grin of realization came to Vesta's face as a light bulb flashed on in her head. She turned to the 'Goth' kid sitting next to her.

"Achilles," she began. Before she could continue, though, she got her answer.

"No."

"Ple-e-e-e-ease, Achilles?" the blonde implored, "You won't be the only one playing. I'll get Winter and Rayne and Garfield and Betty and Victor and Raven –"

"Sure." His tone was, as always, without emotion. It wasn't surprising that Vesta mistook it for something else.

"– And Kori –"

"Okay."

"- And… Wait. You said yes, didn't you."

"Yeah." The shaggy black haired boy shrugged his right shoulder slowly, his face looking as emotionless as human features can possibly be. Dang that kid's good at that kind of thing. We all caught what name Vesta was at when he finally agreed. Yup.

Winter and Rayne, who were also having a conversation, came up with a different conclusion than Vesta, though. It began something like this.

"Remember how you wanted to know what Gar's firehouse was?" Winter asked her redheaded friend.

Rayne gasped a little bit, but not in exclamation; in happiness. "Yeah!"

"Well, basically…" the blonde and red haired teen went on to explain what they had chosen for his two scenes and, even without saying what she meant, Rayne knew what the point of her explaining this was for.

"Okay everyone," Winter announced. From where everyone was they turned to look at her, surprisingly, "Since our last game of truth or dare got cut off, we have two last dares to be dealt. We were in the middle of Gar's turn before he left so he didn't get to finish it and Rayne hadn't even been picked."

It was hard to read the expressions on so many people, and, of course, there was mixed reactions, but it seemed to be… okay. The most important reactions, and the only ones I will record, are those of Garfield and Rayne. Rayne had, at the beginning of the idea, seemed triumphant, but when she heard Winter say her name she became a little more nervous. Garfield just shrunk. More and more he became almost a little mouse (if that's possible) next to his meat eating friend and the blow from Winter.

"So," the blonde and red haired chick (lol) announced, "Gar picked fire house last time. And, drum roll please," almost everybody at the table banged on it as fast as they could to make an imitation drum roll, "Here are his choices. (she cleared her throat here.) One, eat meat."

Here, everyone knew for sure that he was going to say no to this one. There was nothing that he more passionately cared about than the welfare of animals. If this was one of them, how bad could the second one be?

"And two, you have to dress up in stereotypical French clothing and declare your love to Raven in French."

(-note- okay. So don't kill me. I actually came up with this chapter, or at least the outline for it, BEFORE I ever saw Betrayal. And that's the one where BB's trying to ask out Terra :chokes: and he gets the idea to pretend to be French etcetera…)

Everyone tried not to look at Garfield. They honestly did. They did not know how he would react, especially if they were staring at him as though he had a really large pimple on his forehead.

Honestly, his reaction was quite strange, based on his personality. He was completely calm as if nothing had happened and this was a conversation he had with his friends every day.

"Dudes, I don't speak French."

Hearing this seemed to make everyone release their breath, though Raven was completely unreadable. She was not obviously looking away from Gar, but she wasn't staring at him. She was an even better actor than Achilles when it came to hiding emotions. This is a wicked pain trying to figure out what she was thinking. So I don't think I will.

Garfield's rendition of expressing his love to Raven in French did not turn out to be too exciting; he simply said, "Je t'aime; tu a le mademoiselle belle tout le terre," as Winter had figured the best she could with her very little foreign language experience, with a very terrible accent.

Vesta's face showed disappointment. It was apparent that she'd wanted Achilles to play as well, but of course it did not work out. "So what about Rayne?"

"We're getting there," Emily answered for her in a slightly annoyed way.

The rest looked at Rayne expectantly, and, almost on cue, Winter chanted the choices. "Truth, dare, double dare, promise to repeat, asparatuckle, fire house, bottle."

Rayne picked the best one she could under the circumstances. "Dare."

Almost just like "good ol' times," everyone else huddled together like a bunch of schoolgirls (which wasn't too far from the truth) and discussed.

"Dick, you have to go away for a second," Winter whispered while they were all together, "I have an idea and I know you'll just veto it."

The spiky black haired teen muttered a few things under his breath and backed away; back to Kori who now laid across the chair that Richard had abandoned.

Once they had come out of their circle, Winter allowed Betty to tell this one.

"Girl, you gotta, what was the word you used? Oh yeah, stroke. You have to stroke Dick's hair."

Rayne grinned and scurried over to her male friend's side. He had, of course, heard the dare, and he was finding the game more and more unintelligent and ill-witted every moment.

Upon approaching him she moved her hand up to his head slowly; the same way one would try to pet a new dog without frightening it, and stroked the hair feeling what can only be described as ecstasy.

"You know," she commented with a philosopher's look in her eyes, "I always thought your hair would be soft."

Feeling a bit strange about having one of his female friends… stroking… his hair, he ducked away a little bit so that she would stop it and he responded.

"Yeah," he replied, "It used to be but then I changed hair gels and now it's… Rubber."

The rest of the table was quiet for a while. McDonalds still had not cleared from the lunchtime rush so there was still a ton of food being made to fill the ton of emptiness in American's stomachs; children whined from tables in other parts of the restaurant about the toy they had gotten, or not gotten, in their Happy Meals, and cars whizzed by out on the street.

Vesta sipped on her chocolate milk shake a little bit until she satisfactorily heard the bubbling sound that came when it was empty, and sighed happily.

"I just love McDonalds. Don't you?""

scathac's warrior: Hello, how are you? I feel really dead tired right now. (it's the middle of the night) Blah. I was really disappointed in that chapter as well. Honestly, I am pretty much disappointed in thewhole story so far. But yeah...Hope you liked this chapter better:-d

Golden-Sama: I am waiting for the end with bated breath. I thiink that it's bad that Canada gets it first for two reasons - one is that they get it first, heh, a self explanitory reason, and the other is because I will be much too tempted to read the spoilers. Because I really want to see them really bad when they appear, but I don't want to ruin it. Argh! lol. You want to live in Holly o' Wood? I don't think I could stand it... Too much sun... hehe. I forgot the elephant again. Bloody muffins. Well:shrugs, I guess I'll just have to deal with it... Wow I'm random.

Rose: Hello! How are you, loves? I really started to laugh when you answered the part about the "how does that make you feel" question. I never would have thought of that - I was too busy jumping up and down and going "Wheee!" Wow I'm kind of hyper... Yeah:-d Well I'm glad you reviewed and, once again, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Tidus'luvr: Hey Hilly! Yeah, I kind of updated. I don't know what else to say. Do you think that I'm getting better at writing yet? I sure hope so... Aggh. I hope that the sequel to this (right. the sequel. the one that prolly won't start till next year) is better than this one. I really don't have much to say... Yeah. Hasta la byeybes!

xBxMYxJAMESxDEANxcandyclouds: oh don't hate me. I know you don't hate me. You still loooooooooooove me no matter what you say. Okay, you didn't even say that you hate me but... whatever. So anyways, I hope that your Bye Bye Birdie audition goes GOOD. (lol... bad grammar) I wish I could try out with you. Blah. I hope that you're satisfied that I at least updated today instead of next thursday. Byebyes!

QUESTION TO ANSWER IN REVIEW:

1. What's the deal with socks? You put two in and you take one out. I mean, where do they go! (Words of Maria Christina-Lucia, Private Eye)

-note- Doom is my new favourite word. Hehehe. My sister thinks that I am insane and that I am going to die when I go to college. Let me explain. I am happy on a normal school night if I get eight hours of sleep. My sister says that, the way I'm busy and pushing myself now, I am going to have some kind of mental breakdown or something when I get out of high school. Lol. By the way, I finished this chapter at about 12:15 (ish)… that gives me about six hours of sleep, give or take. :shrugs:. At least my state tests are over… I don't even think I have anything important going on today. (Friday)

Sneaky Peaky: "Chapter Twelve"
The weekend is the only part of the story that I'll do this with; making it shorter and all, but the next chapter is the next day. And guess what that is? Sunday. Muhahaha. You shall see, you shall see… Can any of the Titans sing, do you know?