October. Garfield's greatest gamble p.1

The Project Club was scorching under the afternoon sun, all five of them stationed at different points of the football field bleachers. They each had their phones out and were on a five-way call via the tweaked instant messaging app Vic had just finished installing in all their phones.

"See anything?" Dick asked into his phone.

"Nothing, boss," answered Gar.

"Do we all have to answer, or…?" Raven posed. The five-way calls were still a brand new experience for them.

Dick faltered. "Or—just say the word if you see something."

Kori asked, "Were we not going to do the thing, the next time we reparted?"

"What's she talking about?" asked Vic.

"Your walkie-talkie function," explained Dick. "I said we should try it out the next time we split up. But it seems… lame to try it for this mission. Maybe for next time."

Victor turned to the cheerleading practice in the field. It was odd to be here now he was so out of touch with this world. Right now, Kitty kept trying to get on the position at the front that was rightfully Jade's as head cheerleader. There was consequently a power struggle between the two, while the other girls stood around impatiently as their practice time was cut progressively shorter. In the end, and to Vic's surprise, Kitty's power of will prevailed, and Jade fell in line with the other girls, carrying out the routine with a dead expression on her face, as Kitty directed and criticized. Vic nearly chuckled to himself. She bet Jade and Angel were regretting ever adding her to their posse.

"You're supposed to check for spies, Vic, not check out the girls," Gar said on the phone.

Vic looked across the bleachers. From the opposite side of the stadium, Gar was giving him a thumbs up from a distance. "Look who's talking," Vic said into the phone.

"Can we go now?" Raven asked.

"Practice isn't over," said Dick. "You guys just wait a little longer, okay?"

"Dude, there's no one here but us and the girls," said Gar. "Can we go? Tomorrow's Halloween. I wanna finish my costume."

"Costume?" echoed Vic. "Gar, you need to be worrying about passing Professor Chang's test tomorrow!"

"Vic, I have it under control," replied Gar.

"Gar, you do not," said Kori, sounding, as per usual, like she regretted to be informing the truth. "Just this morning you told me Genghis Khan was a famous comedian."

"Yeah, and you corrected me, and now I know something more," said Gar, who had already forgotten what Kori had told him that guy was. "But seriously, you guys better wise up, 'cause my costume is so wicked-"

"Dick, it's five now," Raven interrupted. "This gig was until five."

Dick looked out onto the field. The cheerleaders were still hard at practice, but he distinctly heard a cheer about their football team. "Vic, correct me if I'm wrong, but those aren't regional moves anymore, right?"

"Those are just regular game cheers, boss," confirmed Victor.

"Let's get the hell out of here," said Dick.

The five started leaving the bleachers. Jade saw them leaving and chased after them, with Angel in tow. "Hey! Practice's not over!" Jade cried.

Dick turned around and kept walking backwards towards the exit. "We agreed to guard competition cheers. That part is over."

"We're doing game cheers now! What if those Terrance High losers come and steal those?" demanded Jade.

"That won't affect an actual inter-school competition, so we're out," Dick replied, and turned his back on her.

"Those cheers all sound the same anyway!" Vic added.

"How did we get roped into that?" asked Raven, as they went out onto the street.

"It technically fell within our policies," said Dick. "If someone's really stealing competition routines, that affects the school. It seemed important on paper."

"We need to tighten up those policies," replied Raven.

"We will. Promise. Just after midterms," said Dick, heaving a sigh.

Gar stopped them before they went their separate ways. "Hey, don't you guys forget we're going to a Halloween party this year."

"Oh yeah, let's not lose sight of what's important," said Raven.

"Exactly! Raven gets it, guys," he said, jumping to give her a side-hug. He leaped back before she pushed him away and held up his hands, grinning sheepishly.

(Because Gar had found a delicate balance with Raven. If he got the hell off her within three seconds, he got away unscathed. Normally.)

"Gar, we are going to your party," Dick assured him, "but I'm not gonna waste brain cells worrying about a costume when next week's chock full of exams."

"'Course not, just do something simple!" Gar shrugged. "Just something where people can tell what you're dressed as, and that's it!"

"But-" Dick began.

"Kori, you're on my side on this, aren't you?" Gar asked.

"I am most excited to partake in the traditional celebration of-"

"Excellent! Dick? You're game, right?"

"If it doesn't run down on study time, yeah, but-"

"Okay, great! Vic?"

"No one in this town cares about Halloween, and neither do I."

"And that's why I like it better than any town I've ever lived in," added Raven.

"You two better be in costume the next time I see you!" Gar said, pointing fingers at Raven and Vic.

"What, tomorrow in school?" asked Raven.

"The next time that matters!" Gar returned, and walked away.

Raven turned to Kori. "Chemistry," she said.

"Chemistry," Kori agreed, and they walked off together.

Dick looked like he wanted to follow Gar and set him straight about their level of commitment to Halloween. Victor saw this, and laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Just let him walk away," he said through gritted teeth. "Let him think we're game or he'll never drop it, and let's go cram for Geography. Smile and wave."

Dick joined Victor in smiling and waving at Gar, who was waving them goodbye from the bus stop. "He's gonna be mad tomorrow night," Dick said through his smile.

"We can deal with it after Immotu's exam," said Vic in a sing-song voice.

On the bus, Kori showed Raven a Chemistry video on her phone, students carrying out a titration with actual lab equipment, something their class only did theoretically on pen and paper.

"So this is what we don't have the funding to do at our school?" Raven asked.

"I imagine so," said Kori.

"Send me that video," Raven requested.

For Raven, having a phone had been a steep learning curve. But once she conquered it, it was as if she'd always had one.

She had known computers before; as a little girl she'd been sat in front of one a few times. She remembered playing Pinball on them. But the last cell phone she'd held on her hands hadn't even had an internet connection; now she had a mini rocket computer at her disposal, and somehow it was easier to manage than the flip phone she remembered, whose functions seemed like a labyrinth she had to wade through. Vic had said something about user design making great strides in the last decade.

Technology just hadn't been a thing in her life since she and Arella had joined Azarath. Her mother had a music player for her ton of CD's, and a little Walkman she kept for the end of times, and that was it. When needed, they used the landline in the common room.

Arella had always been of the mind that Raven didn't need a cell phone. Whenever the subject popped into her head, it was always a soft, desperate 'You don't need a phone, do you, sweetie?', and Raven always had always had more important hurdles to get through with her –mainly letting her come home late-, so that getting a phone was quite low on her list of priorities. And just like she'd never wanted to worry Arella with the request for a phone, now she didn't want to worry her with the revelation that she had one, so she'd been keeping it a secret for now. Within a month of owning it, she'd gotten so used to it, she now had to remind herself not to take the phone out at the dinner table with her mom there.

And with her friends, it felt she was admitted into a circle she hadn't previously had access to, of group chats and Snapchats and Instagram feeds. She kind of got how people got addicted to their phones. Almost.

Gar had also talked her into getting an Instagram account. She still didn't know how.

Having it irritated her. But she had no profile picture, and that irritated Gar. So she thought it was a fine compromise.

"By the way, we're preparing for Diwali," Raven told Kori as they walked the rest of the way to Azarath. "You'll notice the decorations everywhere."

Kori was instantly excited. "Oh, I have read of that holiday! You light many lamps to celebrate the return of Rama after exile!"

Raven gave her a gratified smile and gently corrected her. "Well, what we celebrate varies by community. My family's Tamil. We celebrate lord Krishna defeating a demon called Narakasura."

Raven went on to tell her the whole story.

Out of all her friends, Raven felt the most comfortable telling Kori about her culture, and answering her questions. Raven had even agreed when Kori asked her to teach her meditation, because she'd come to accept Kori had a genuine interest in all religions, and that she could potentially believe everything. She knew this was also Kori's way of doing something together that Raven liked; and it gave her the chance to share her culture with a friend, something that had been missing from her life.

Raven had tried to join a coven online, once. It was made up of six girls and a guy called Zachary who was, reportedly, a really good sport. She'd never gotten past the first cultural appropriation hurdle with them. For the first communal spell, one of the girls posted a chant in Sanskrit for them to recite. Raven had read it, seen it was the Gayatri mantra, which honored the sun, and seen the post instructed the spell to be performed under a full moon. She'd warned them that the chant was meant to be sung at sunrise, and that it would most certainly not work, even if they got the pronunciation right, which was a whole deal on its own. At the time she'd been studying Sanskrit with a pandit, and she was fully ready to answer the onslaught of questions she assumed would arise. She'd told them that if they were going to delve into other cultures for their practices they should maybe not separate the elements of a ritual as they found it.

They had told her that worship was worship, and if she couldn't respect the way others chose to practice she should just leave. Raven had left.

When they opened the door to Raven's apartment, they were greeted by the fragrance of jasmine. Arella was at the table, steadily working at preparing a wide array of sweets, and smiled when Raven and Kori came in. "Hello, girls. You wanna taste-test some jalebi?" she said, nodding towards a tray on the kitchen counter.

Raven readily went to get one of the spiral-shaped fried sweets, while Kori was still admiring the apartment with wide eyes. She had stopped to gawk at the kolam by the door, then the fairy lights strewn around the windows, and was now staring at the diyas that filled the home, starting at the puja corner in the living room and continuing on the shelves, the coffee table and on rows on the ground. "Oh, I would love to see them lit!"

"If we're still studying by Sunday, you will," Raven answered Kori. "I can't believe I have to study on Diwali season."

Arella smiled affectionately and took a pause from her kneading to kiss Raven's forehead. "You were always going to have exams during Diwali at some point, kutti."

Raven smiled back at her mom. Diwali always took Raven back to the first time they had celebrated it after they got into Azarath; they had never been able to do it properly before, when they lived with Raven's father. It had been around this time of the year when they had first gotten to the Azarath shelter in Gotham City, and that first celebration had been just the two of them in a strange apartment. Later, when they felt more at ease in the new town, they had ventured out to go to the local mandir, and joined the communal festivities, and went to see the fireworks—but before all that were the private at home celebrations, and that was always the memory Raven associated with Diwali: she and her mother lighting crackers in the inner patio of the shelter, the festivity settling them in their new life. It had been the original triumph of light over darkness for them.

Kori finally made it to the kitchen counter to serve herself some sweets.

"We wanted to put some diyas on the window sills, too, but Azarath didn't let us," Raven told her friend.

"Why not?" asked Kori.

"Because then they can be seen from the outside," Arella explained. "There's a rule that we can't have identifiers outside our designated private space. To keep true to the notion that common spaces are neutral and that everyone's equal."

"It's a stupid new rule," said Raven.

Arella gave her daughter a reproachful look. "Azar saw the sense in it," she said quietly.

Raven said, "It only got approved because Nancy put it forth."

"Well, Nancy would stage a coup otherwise," Arella said dryly, her tone betraying how she really felt about Nancy.

Raven smirked. Arella shook her head as if to reproach herself and turned back to work, but not before Raven had caught a glimpse of the freer, more willful Arella underneath.

Sometimes it was hard to remember that Arella had run away from home at fifteen, moved to a different town, gotten a job, and held it on her own for years, until she got roped with the cult where she'd met Raven's father. That she'd once been headstrong, rebellious and fearless.

Then she'd gotten all that literally beaten out of her, and after that she'd found Azarath, and the shelter's lifestyle had made her somber and grave; and the memory of her bad turns in life had made her distrustful of her own instincts.

Raven thought her mother didn't think she was strong, or lucky, or that she knew better than anyone anymore. Raven suspected she toed the line of what Azarath dictated because she was afraid of stepping outside of it. The shelter had saved her; if she disagreed with it, externally or even internally, she could ruin the way things had gone well enough for her for the last decade.

But when Raven was little, she remembered a different Arella. She remembered loud music and dance parties in the living room. Impromptu couch forts, and entire afternoons spent reading Amar Chitra Katha books together. Trying out recipes together and nearly burning down the kitchen, because Arella had never learned how to cook from her own mother. All during the day time, of course—when her father was gone.

"I'll help you cook tomorrow," Raven told her mother.

Arella said, "That's okay. You should rest from your exams tomorrow. You two are studying now, right?"

"Yeah, Chemistry," said Raven. As she retreated into her room with Kori, she thought to herself that she would make time to help her mother anyway.

wolfieinthesky: Welcome to Year 2! ^^ Adam will keep a pain in the ass in the sidelines, until eventually he's promoted to plot-relevant pain in the ass ;)

A note on Diwali: I scrapped what an Indian-American Tamil Diwali would look like from a mix of articles, Quora answers, Google images and Youtube tutorials. I hope everything I included was correct, and if anyone spots a mistake and wants to help me out, feel free to correct me!

Next chapter's one of my favorites: the introduction of Melvin, Timmy and Teether!