About an hour later Garfield, Richard, and Kori met at their usual table during their lunch break. Raven had retired to the school library, which served as a more peaceful atmosphere for her when it came to completing her poem. Lately she had been having a horrible lack of inspiration, and needed to concentrate her creative energies into this project whenever possible.

"How was detention, Gar?" Richard asked, stirring a lump of cafeteria mashed potatoes with a plastic fork.

Garfield shrugged. "It wasn't all bad," he admitted. "I just had to sit there for about twenty-five minutes…oh, and there was this girl that I talked to while Madame was gone."

"Really?" Richard furrowed his brow. "Who was she? Do I know her?"

"Well, I dunno," Garfield said suavely. "Would you happen to know a one Jinx Diablo?"

There was a small, silent pause. "I believe that Raven did know her quite well at one point, did she not?" Kori asked Richard.

"Yeah. She did." He absent-mindedly ran his fingers through his hair. "They were friends, I think. The two of them would hang out occasionally, especially on the weekends. Then, they just stopped talking. I think they had a fight or something… Not that they're still on very bad terms now…which is kind of weird, considering that Raven isn't a very forgiving person…"

Garfield was hardly listening to what Richard was saying; he was too eager to announce the other news that he had brought with him. "Well, she gave me her email address," he said, head held high. "Which means she still wants to talk to me. Hell, she even said so herself."

"Just be careful," Richard cautioned. "From what I know about her, Jinx is very much a rebel."

"Hey, dude, I'll be fine. It's not like I'm planning on going to detention again." At least, not any time soon, Garfield added aside to himself.

XXXXX

Raven was speed-walking to the hallway where she was to meet with Kori; sixth period had just ended, and she was hurrying as fast as she could from PE so that Kori wouldn't be kept waiting. Kori saw her coming. "Raven! How was your PE class?"

"Running…is…pointless…"

Kori patted her on the head teasingly. "How did I know you were going to say something like that?"

"Stop…touching…my head…" Raven could hear her friend's dainty laugh in response. The purple-haired girl certainly was tired; the coach had gotten the bright idea to make the class run two miles.

"I'm sorry! At least now our next class is Music Theory, where we simply have to sit in our chairs and review things we have already know such as dynamics and…" Suddenly Kori let out a screech.

Raven looked up in horror as her friend collapsed to the floor. "Kori! You alright?" Raven bent down and offered a hand to help Kori up. The sound of someone chuckling came from nearby; the two girls looked and saw the junior boy, who Raven recognized for harassing Garfield and who Kori recognized for harassing herself. The boy retracted his foot, which he had used to trip an unsuspecting Kori. On each side of him were his two usual cronies. "Nice, Tom," the one on the right snickered.

The leader now known as Tom leered down at the two girls. "How's the view down there, loser?" he asked, directing the question at Kori. Tom turned around and left for his next class, his friends right behind him and congratulating him on his latest antic. Raven helped Kori up and narrowed her eyes.

"Was this the first time something like that's happened this year?"

"Raven, you shouldn't worry—"

"Kori! Tell me whether or not you've been harassed before today!"

"…Yes. It was yesterday."

Raven sighed. "You should stick with the rest of us as much as possible. I'd rather not have what happened last year happen again." She handed Kori her books (which she had dropped during her fall), and the two of them walked the rest of the way to room 42.

XXXXX

Richard returned home about ten minutes after school ended. Knowing that his father was still at work, he dropped his bag and shoes near the front door and went to check whatever message was left for him on the refrigerator door.

Sure enough, he found a note taped to the refrigerator for him:

Richard,

Hope you had a nice day at school.

Shouldn't be at work late tonight.

Barbara's coming for dinner, please don't make a mess.

Be sure to get your homework done and all that jazz.

Love Dad

Richard recognized Barbara to be his dad's new intern. His father worked in a dance studio and often choreographed some of Jump City's big house theatre shows. As for his mother, she had divorced Mr. Grayson a long time ago and moved to San Francisco. But working on so many production teams made a living, so Richard and his father lived a nice life with the entire house to themselves.

The teen decided that homework could wait; he had a try-out to train for. Richard quickly nipped into the basement and went to his punching bag, which hung in the corner. Pretending that it was just another opponent, he began his practice.

XXXXX

A/N: I know probably a bunch of people will read this and go WTF because of that little history bit I wrote about Richard. Can't say that I've seen something like that in other fanfictions very often, of course. I hope it's not too weird.
Oh, and special thanks to Rose/Jackalobe for your great reviews. :0)