September. The space between popularity and voyeurism p.2

As the third day of school came to an end, Kori happily walked with her friends towards the clubroom, all of them eager for the new missions that might be already awaiting them. She was suddenly stopped by a claw-like grip holding onto her arm. Kori turned back to see Kitty Moth had latched on to her, her acrylic nails digging into her skin like spikes. She looked back to her friends and watched them obliviously walk on without her, getting lost in the sea of students, while Kori stayed forcibly anchored in place.

Kitty was smiling at her. "Hiii."

Kori clearly remembered the last time Kitty had looked sweet towards her. It had preceded the petite blonde playing an obedient third fiddle to her friends' Kori said nothing, narrowed her eyes, and waited for the twist.

"Kori, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a while now. I'm so sorry I didn't stand up for you back when Jade and Angel were teasing you! I was just so intimidated by them last year, I did everything they told me!"

"Oh." Kori looked at the other girl's doe eyes and immediately softened in turn. "Reall-"

"Really! I swear! Oh my God, I feel so bad, you don't even know!"

"Well… I accept your apology," Kori said, and tried to walk away.

But Kitty's acrylic nails still dug into Kori's bare arm like spikes, holding her in the spot. "Jade and Angel are older than me, you know? And they got me in trouble all the time! My daddy hated them for it. And I did stand up for you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah! I told them, Kori is actually so great. And they threw me out! So now I have no friends."

Kori's eyebrows knitted together. Any suspicion she might've harbored was suspended in favor of instinctual pity."I am so sorry."

"Great!" Kitty said, brightening up. "So can I join your club?"

"What!?"

"You know, since I pretty much lost all my friends because of you, it's only fair you let me into yours, right?"

"Um…" Inside Kori fought conflicting feelings. On the one hand, Kitty had been her bully all of last year, even if she now claimed her heart hadn't been on it. On the other hand, keeping someone out of the Club over a grudge was reprehensible both in Kori's private mind and surely in the eyes of her friends. She tried to stall for time. "The auditions were yesterday so I do not know-"

"Oh, I forgot to say the most important part! I totally want to help people and all that stuff!"

Kori paused. "You want to help?"

"Yes! Yeah, that's mostly why I want to join!Helping people out sounds really cool!"

Kori was forced to consider her. Dick had said morality was the most important aspect of letting people in. And who was she to deny a person who wanted to do the best for the school?

As Kori was faced with that quandary, the other four had made it through the crowd of people loitering outside their clubroom.

"All this people are here for requests?" Dick asked the others in a whisper.

Victor raised his voice. "Hey! Are all of you here to ask us to do something?" Some murmurs of confirmation came, and no one seemed to leave the crowd. "Okay then, form a single line and start coming in!" Then he pushed his friends inside before the kids started fighting each other for the first spot.

"Where's Kori?" Gar asked as they went in.

"I don't know where we lost her," Dick said, having long noticed Kori wasn't with them. "She must be on her way."

The first kid came through the door, a girl who looked like she'd fiercely fought her way to the front of the line. She smoothed her disheveled hair and clothes as she sat in front of the four, and gave them a triumphant smile before she announced, "I need you guys to determine whether my boyfriend's actually cheating on me."

She was the first of many cases like that.

A short distance away, Kitty used all her strength to pull Kori towards the clubroom, who reluctantly treaded on as she tried to set the matter straight, "We will ask my friends if you can audition-"

"Sure, yeah," Kitty responded through gritted teeth. "Thanks again for doing this, I am so sad."

When they got to the clubroom door, Kori planted her feet, causing Kitty to tumble over as she lost her grip on Kori, as Kori had only been allowing herself to be pulled before.

"Kitty, I am not sure you understand the process of-"

But Kitty opened the door herself, and so Kori was forced to rush after her.

Kitty held the door open and spread her arms. "He-llo! Newest member Kitty Moth has arrived!"

Over the blonde's head, Kori saw her four friends and a boy she didn't know stare at Kitty. She watched with horror as Kitty went straight to Dick, pushed Gar to the side to sit next to him and wrapped an arm around him.

"Uh, who said you could join?" Dick asked, pulling back as far as he could without falling off the chair.

Kitty said, "Kori did! She really wanted me to join! She tested me in and everything!"

Kori was shocked, betrayed, disgusted, but also rooted in place—she also knew she couldn't do anything now she'd let the girl walk in, and the contradiction made her start trembling in fury on the spot.

Raven, Vic and Gar, who didn't have the context of how sad Kitty had made herself look before, still could sort of tell she had duped Kori somehow, simply judging from the fact that Kori looked as shocked as them.

Dick, who was still trapped in Kitty's embrace, was on survival mode and not thinking anything much.

The boy who'd come to request their services stared at all the club members in askance, and found no answers in any of them. He had auditioned to join them the day before, and had lost his possible spot, reportedly, from an insufficient score in the Morality and Physical sections, and now he looked at Kitty with indignity. "She's your new team member?" he asked them.

Dick managed to shoot Kori a questioning look from above Kitty's clutch, saw her staring at the floor with weirdly flushed cheeks, and had to make a snap decision. "She's on a trial period," he spat.

For Kori that was like a death sentence. Unable to take anymore, she decided to remove herself from the situation, and walked out of the clubroom. Raven wisely slipped outside after her a moment later.

Vic and Gar were left to witness the spectacle that was Dick trying to see their supplicants with Kitty hanging off his arm.

"Can you move?" he would ask her in between kids.

Kitty would look coy. "Oh? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Yes."

In the now deserted hallway, Kori exploded in rage. "The callousness," she said as she paced. "The, the just, the assumption. The, the…"

"Nerve?" supplied Raven, who'd been leaning against the lockers listening to the ranting.

"Yes, the nerve! I cannot believe she would manipulate like so!"

"Kori, don't take this the wrong way, but what possessed you to let Kitty into the club?"

Kori cried, "She said she was alone! She said she lost friends defending me!" and she buried her face into her hands and cried tearlessly, like she was too angry to produce actual tears.

Raven detached her back from the lockers, stood in uncertainty for a moment, and then gingerly laid a hand on Kori's back. "Don't cry," she said flatly.

Kori's face emerged despondent from her hands. "Raven, what shall I do?"

Victor and Gar joined them in the hallway before Raven could give Kori an answer.

"Just to clarify," Gar started, "She's lying when she says you really really wanted her to join, right, Kori?"

Kori nodded pitifully. "She is."

"I guess she knew she wouldn't have passed the normal way if she'd stayed yesterday," Victor concluded.

Kori sprung suddenly. "Where is Dick? Did you leave him with her?"

"Yep. He couldn't get away," said Gar, shaking his head.

Kori gave a step forward, then backwards. "Oh, he shouldn't have… been left alone with such a…" She finally settled in an expression of sheer panic, evidently not finding an excuse to go save Dick.

The three realized it at roughly the same time—Kori actually thought she was in danger of Kitty snatching Dick. As if Dick didn't hate Kitty from the moment he'd met her.

"Kori, um," Vic started, but found himself grasping at how to disengage her of the notion without upsetting the careful balance of denial she and Dick had going on. "How do I put this…?"

But then the last kid with a request was out of the clubroom, and immediately after her, Dick and Kitty came out—Dick first, and Kitty hanging off his arm.

Dick finally managed to shake her off in the hallway and put some distance between them. "Okay, what is this? The last time I talked to you, didn't you say I was disgusting?"

Kitty cocked her head. "Aw, but Dickie, that was last year. You're popular now."

Dick seemed to understand. "Oh. Right. I forgot high school was a meritocracy."

Kitty threw herself on him with a giggle. "You're so smart! Hey Dick, when are you asking me out?"

"Never."

Here Kori tremulously smiled, hopeful again.

Kitty pouted. "Well why not?"

Dick almost smirked as he said his next words. "You're in the Club now, right? There are no relationships within the club."

The other three could see the exact moment Kori got her world torn down. She gasped, drawing her hands over her mouth –Gar, who was used to watching classical Hollywood films with Rita, thought he could see a dramatic close-up in action, complete with background blur. They all wondered how Dick didn't hear her—but perhaps Kitty was overpowering all his senses at the moment.

Kitty huffed. "Hmph. I'll make you change your mind." Seemingly forgetting the other four had ever existed, she threw back her hair and left the school.

Dick breathed deeply, and only then noticed his friends. He looked glad to see Kori. "Kori! I thought you left. Look, what is this about Kitty? You want her in the club? Really?"

"I…" Kori hesitated.

The other three watched it happen like a slow car crash. They knew,with certainty, with impotence, exactly how this would turn out: how Kori wouldn't reveal Kitty's deception, because she was too noble, and knowing her main reserve against Kitty was that she didn't want her near Dick blinded her to the reality that Kitty would be a terrible teammate; how Dick would do what he thought Kori wanted, despite it being something that went against his best judgment; how Kori would inadvertently force Dick to do something he didn't want to do, because she'd be led to think he agreed it was the right thing to do.

"Oh! O-of course I want her in," Kori said.

"Don't…" whispered Vic, the frustration escaping in any way it could.

Dick peered at Kori, the effort to understand showing patently even through his sunglasses. "So she's… a new friend of yours or something?"

Kori looked at her feet, and tremulously answered, "Yes."

Gar buried his face in his palms. Raven felt like she knew how a Greek chorus felt.

Dick scratched the back of his head. "Okay, well… then I guess she's in."

"Thank you," said Kori, balancing on the balls of her feet.

Wordlessly, Victor pulled Gar and Raven into another hallway, to a nook where they could talk.

Gar whispered, "Hey. Call me crazy. But you guys think Kori has a thing for Dick?"

"Quit the jokes, grass stain," said Vic. "How are we fixing this? I mean, we have to intervene here, right?"

But Raven was already miles ahead of them. She had decided before Dick and Kitty ever came out of the clubroom that she wasn't losing the safe haven and peace of mind she had in that clubroom to such a one as Kitty—not over Dick and Kori's bumbling hormonal stupidity. With death in her eyes, she told the boys, "Yes, we do. And I will."

And she went after Kori.

But before Raven could fix it, she had to get through to Kori.

"I promise you Dick hates Kitty," she told Kori that afternoon, over ice cream. She had judged ice cream would help things.

"But he let her into the club," Kori said quietly.

"Because you asked him to."

Kori was letting her ice cream cone drip over her hand while she stared at her lap. "I am merely concerned because I do not think she would be a good member."

"She'd be terrible," Raven agreed.

"Because of her… duplicitous ways."

"Exactly," Raven said, approving both the opinion and Kori's use of the word.

Kori looked up at Raven. "So if he does not like her… do you think he said there ought to be no relationships within the club just to make her stop?" she asked in a small voice.

"Um. Maybe."

In reality, Raven knew Dick already felt that way before Kitty. Vic had eventually told her about the other part of what had happened in that ill-fated camping trip last year, and how Dick was apparently determined to ignore his feelings for Kori in favor of protecting the status quo within the Club—however wise or necessary that may or may not be.

Raven didn't want to lie to Kori, but she was trying really hard to find the balance between making her understand everyone thought Kitty was terrible and not making her angrier at the blonde than she absolutely needed to be. And it wasn't because Raven cared about defending Kitty—she was just trying to avoid Kori going to jail for murder. Because in the time she'd known Kori, Raven had come to suspect the girl had no middle ground: she would either stomach Kitty for eternity and suffer in silence when she saw her flirting with Dick, or completely snap and actually kill her.

Besides, Raven didn't know for sure that Dick hadn't changed his mind since last year. She let that thought justify her white lie.

"You do agree she's lying about being kicked out of her friend group over defending you, right?" Raven pressed, circling back to an earlier argument.

"I agree that is what makes sense the most, yes," Kori conceded, and Raven nearly breathed in relief. But then Kori sat a little straighter and said, "But in either way, we have only one option. We must make Kitty's old friends take her back!"

Raven groaned, immediately getting a clear vision of a complicated ploy that would involve entirely more contact with the popular girls than she wanted to have in several lifetimes. She grabbed Kori's shoulder and said in no equivocal terms, "I've got a better idea."

The next day, Kori stood by Raven's locker, tugging on one of her curls. "Raven are you certain that-?"

"Yes, Kori."

Sometimes Raven got the feeling that they were missing another girl in the Club. Like there was someone else who should have been there, but wasn't. Someone halfway between her and Kori. Not as emotionally raw as Kori and not as apathetic as Raven herself; not as fiery and not as pessimistic. With the social smarts neither of them seemed to have. Someone normal. Someone who spoke girl. It seemed wrong to Raven that they had to make do as just the two of them.

But alas, it was just the two of them, and they would have to make do.

Raven's plan was devastatingly simple. She walked into homeroom, found Dick, and told him, "We took a vote. We all want you to kick Kitty out."

"But Kori wanted her in," he said.

"No," was the simple reply. "Kori wants her out too."

Dick looked like he wanted to ask her if she was sure, but was scared to risk it.

Raven asked, "Will you do it?"

Dick said, "I'll be deliriously happy to do it."

So after first period, Dick caught Kitty on the hallway and told her she was out of the Club, no preambles and no explanations. Kitty stood shocked for a second, like she'd never been told no in her entire life, because she hadn't. Then she cried and followed Dick through the hallways, goading and threatening by turns. Dick continued his way to his next class like he'd gone deaf, followed by the screaming hurricane, and eventually Dick's next teacher shut the door on her face.

And so Kitty's time as a Project Club member amounted to almost one whole day.

That afternoon, Kori savored her path to Raven's house. After the threat of having Kitty as a permanent fixture in her life and among her friends, she was basically floating on clouds on the way.

Arriving to her friend's house and seeing no one on the porch, she took out her phone. Is anybody at Raven's? she asked the group chat.

Dick replied, Vic and I are on our way

So Kori waited. She would have waited even if they had told her they were far away.

Going to Raven's house with Raven, who had a key and lived here, wasn't the same experience as having to knock on the door. Even getting Raven's mom on the door, which was the best case scenario, was always awkward. But the rest of her house cohabitants –whom they could never keep track of- were a Russian roulette. Maybe you got five individuals in robes who questioned your purpose; or maybe you got the random person in civilian clothes who let you through with a concerning amount of ease.

When Dick and Victor arrived shortly after, Vic clapped his hands together, "Okay, dare we knock?"

"We must wait for Gar!" said Kori.

Dick texted the group chat, Gar, are you coming this century? and he briefly wondered why they continued to come to Raven's to do this whole ritual when it was easier to meet at someone else's house. They always just decided, 'Oh let's go to Raven's house this time'—like it was easy. It would be a different story if they could text her to open the door. "Hey, you know who needs a phone? Raven."

Victor laughed, inexplicably gleeful. "No arguments there." He checked the group chat, saw Gar hadn't replied, and rang the doorbell anyway. "Screw it, he can find his own way in later."

They hit jackpot; the door was opened by one of those Azarath members who only needed to hear the name Raven Roch to let them in.

The four crossed the normal-house front, through to the grand circular main salon, up the three sets of stairs to Raven's floor, and knocked on the last door. Raven let them into her apartment and then her room, while hearing the usual complaints on the difficulty of getting to her.

"You could always learn to climb the wall, like Gar does," Raven said.

"Yeah, or you could ask your mom for a cell p…" Dick returned, before he heard what she'd said. "Gar climbs the wall? How?"

Raven shrugged.

Dick let it go. He pulled out his notebook and spread the slips of paper he'd filled with mission info on Raven's bed. "Okay, here are all the missions that aren't complete bullshit."

After leafing through them, Vic said, "Counterpoint. They're all bullshit."

Dick ignored him. "I think the guy who wanted us to talk to his teacher about an unfair grade is our best bet."

Vic returned, "I told you, there's no case there. I remember Billy from English last year. I bet he deserves the grade he got."

"We could still look into it," Dick insisted.

"Wasn't there one with a missing dog?"

The voice had come from the open window, surprising everyone but Raven. Gar was casually sitting on the window sill.

As Gar jumped in, Dick ran to the window and looked down. He saw a straight wall all the way to the ground, three stories down. There were no windows under Raven's. No vines. There wasn't a tree within twenty feet. Nothing one could possibly grab on. On the ground, safely tucked next to a shrub, were Gar's shoes. Dick looked at Gar through narrowed eyes. "How did you do that?"

Gar shrugged. "It's exposed brick, dude. I just hang on real tight."

"But you're bad at climbing," said Dick.

"No, I'm bad at climbing a rope," Gar grinned, like that explained the whole thing.

"Then how…?"

But Gar was already at Raven's bed, looking for his preferred paper slip. "This one. The missing dog."

"We shouldn't even have pre-taken that one," argued Vic. "It's dumb. We're not animal shelter workers."

"Well, we have to take something," said Dick, returning to the group.

"Do we?" asked Raven. "Can't we just wait until something that makes sense for us comes along? Vic's right, all of these are ridiculous." She picked one at random. "…Retrieving a missing diary?"

"A girl lost her diary in school," said Dick. "I figured it sounded like a school safety case."

"What is this one with a sweet sixteen?" Kori asked, dubiously holding up a paper.

Dick explained, "There's this girl who's organizing her sweet sixteen and a few services are booked for the date she wants, but she says she knows for a fact there's no party that day. So she wanted us to track down the person who booked and forgot to cancel or whatever."

"Why did that even get shortlisted?" asked Gar.

Dick grimaced. "Well, the girl is the daughter of a senator, so I thought that would make it higher priority."

Raven fixed him with a look. "So we're down to taking cases based on social standing like every other bureaucratic organization?"

Dick looked at her in horror. "You know what? You're right." He handed her the paper. "Burn this."

Dick had to admit he was tempted to do as Raven said and take none of the missions. Looking at these options made him feel a deep, hollow boredom. I miss when we chose our own missions, he thought. But he quenched the feeling and said, "Let's take a vote."

Gar chose the dog mission. Victor voted for them taking none and waiting. Raven was indecisive, but ended up voting for the boy who said he got an unfair grade. Kori voted for the sweet sixteen mission, and they suspected it was just because she wanted to know more about those parties. Dick voted for the missing diary.

"Okay. Let's try that again."

On a second round, Vic and Raven both voted for waiting. After Gar whispered something to her, Kori moved over to Gar's side and voted for the dog. Knowing it was up to him to break the tie, Dick sighed and voted for the dog too.

"It's like a mystery case," he said, rationalizing as he went along. "It'll get us out in town, we'll be talking to people, and we'll reunite a dog with his owner. Look, superheroes bring kittens down from trees, right? They're not above that, and we're not above this." He nodded to himself. "I'm sure it's the right pick."

Twenty four hours later, Dick sat fuming in Vic's car.

After a long day of going through shelters, consulting neighbors, and finally resorting to going through the streets near the boy's house shouting the dog's name, Dick had called the client in question with an update, only to be told the dog had come back on his own the night before, hours after the boy gave the five the mission—he just hadn't thought to cancel. Dick and Victor had gone straight to picking their friends strewn in various shelters, not talking to each other.

"It was not the right pick," said Kori as she got inside the car, the last one to be picked up.

"We'll get the hang of it eventually," sighed Dick.

"Okay, clearly we need to organize parameters to take missions too," Dick told the group as they walked to the clubroom the next day. A night's sleep and some distance had turned yesterday's frustration into productivity.

"Like how fun they are?" asked Gar.

Dick frowned at him. "Like if it involves anyone's safety, the school's standing, or things like that. Like if it actually matters or not."

Gar only half-heard Dick's reply. At that moment he'd just remember his mission, and he was more focused on catching Vic's eye for confirmation. Victor winked back at him, so Gar grinned, threw his arms around Dick and Kori and pushed them into the clubroom. Then Victor stopped Raven before she could enter.

"When's your birthday?" he asked her.

Raven got that wary look in her eyes she got when anyone said something she didn't expect, and she only answered, "June."

"June?" he echoed, losing his smile. "And you didn't say anything? We hung out in the summer."

Raven just gave him a blank look, like she couldn't see why she'd say anything.

Vic filed it away as yet another Raven mystery and put his smile back on. "Well, in that case, here's a belated gift." He produced a small wrapped box, and was touched to see Raven thrown off her rhythm for once, as she looked genuinely surprised.

"Really?" she made out.

"Open it."

She did, gingerly, like she wasn't entirely convinced it wasn't a joke. When she unwrapped it to reveal a cell phone box, she looked at him in disbelief. "You're giving me a phone?"

"You need one."

"Vic, this is too much." She didn't know much about phones, but this one looked really stylish. It must've been expensive.

"Nope," Vic said, looking extremely pleased with himself. "My dad gets trial phones for free. He gives them away all the time. I just asked him for one."

"And the data?" she asked skeptically, holding the pre-paid card also in the box.

"The phone was free, I threw a little something in," said Vic, who only hadn't set up a yearly plan because he'd judged she would balk at that. "And you need a phone," he repeated. "Don't you want one?"

She looked down at it. She produced a small, "Thank you."

Vic grinned from ear to ear. "It just took me a while to get it to you because I was making some tweaks."

"What kind of tweaks?"

Vic looked ready to burst with excitement as he put his hands on her shoulders to lead her into the clubroom. "Let's go inside."

Inside, everyone gathered around Raven and Vic as he showed off the phone's features.

"So here's your regular IM App, but I made it voice-accessed. Watch this." He unlocked the phone, said, "Calling Dick," and Dick's phone went off.

There was a chorus of praise and clapping.

Vic put his hands up as if to wind them down. "Okay, now listen. Calling everyone." And all other four phones went off.

"I'm guessing that's only for the group chat between us?" Dick asked with a bright smile. He hadn't known Vic was working on this, and now he showed more excitement than Raven herself.

Vic replied, "Exactly. Everyone will always just be the five of us. And look, if you click on this icon here," he pointed at a 'O' on the top-right corner of the screen, "you can turn it into an ongoing video call that always stays on in the background but takes minimal battery. So you don't have to even pick up for the other person to be able to talk to you. It'll always be on unless you fully turn off your phone."

"So like, I can be in my room and I'll hear Dick's voice telling me something?" Gar asked.

"Yeah, 'less you click on the icon and turn it off," grinned Vic.

"So it's like a walkie-talkie," concluded Raven.

"Uh… okay," Vic accepted. "So guys, if you want, I'll put the features in all of your phones."

"That would be amazing, Vic," Dick praised. "How did you figure out all of this by yourself?"

"Man, I'm the son of a scientist, I sponged this up growing up," said Vic, but blushed. He turned to Raven. "Now, Raven, I'm rebooting the voice activation, and you say the commands, so it'll get used to your voice. Here."

Raven was a fast learner, but she'd never had a phone before, and by the end of that day her head was jammed with both phone mechanics and Victor's tweaks. She resolved to just take the thing home and piece it together in her own time. She didn't like to admit it, but in this respect she was outdone even by Gar.

End of September.

I won't beat around the bush: when Raven talks about 'another girl who should've been there but wasn't', I'm referencing Donna Troy. After reading the 80's comics, I always felt like there was a Donna-shaped hole in any given Titans lineup? Like there was a missing link between the two extremes the other two girls were? So this is my way of expressing that.

Anne / Annie Huizar: (Is this the same person? Sorry if this is a coincidence. If you made an account to review because you saw me saying I wasn't getting notifications for guest reviews, know that things seem to be working fine again!) Thank you so much for your excitement! I hope you enjoy Year 2 as well! ^^

audriih: ACHKSHGJ stop this is so flattering! Did you get in trouble at work in the end? To be honest I tried to put equal quantities of RobxStar and BBxRae in the story, though I'm not sure if I managed it because my heart is so set in BBxRae that I'm sure it's gonna get special treatment. BUT hopefully that means you're gonna get way more than crumbs! (And it's so incredibly flattering for you to say you liked my BBxRae content when you're not all that into the pairing!) Thank you for reviewing!

Next up: October: Garfield's greatest gamble.

(Yeah I'm gonna upload the Halloween chapter just after Halloween's past, but that's actually fine for what the chapter is gonna be. You'll see why.)