Warning: This chapter features toxic parents (as will happen whenever Steve Dayton's involved). Next chapter's up on Thursday!

Tythos: Oooh I will :)

Sanzojoe: We're all very proud of Raven for daring to take a step forward ^^

December. Adventures in liminal spaces p.1

The study session was interrupted by a booming sound, the last and the loudest in a series of them.

"Does that sound like supervillains to you guys?" asked Gar.

Kori, closest to Victor's bedroom window, cranked it open and looked outside. "I cannot see anything."

"Sounds like it came from north of here," said Dick.

Vic turned on his TV. The local news channel told him that, effectively, Black Glove had escaped from prison and was causing havoc downtown. The Titans were already on it. The noises had been the supervillain's brand new sonic gun; the live feed's lag was only a couple of seconds compared to what they were hearing.

"That's really close," said Vic. "You think they're gonna tell us to evacuate?"

"Maybe the Titans will get it first," said Gar, and lounged back on Vic's bed. "Hey, you ever wonder what if we were superheroes? What our powers would be?" he asked wistfully, staring at the ceiling.

"Gar. You have a Biology test tomorrow," said Raven.

"Relax, I know enough for a B."

"I'm absolutely sure you don't," she replied.

"Okay, Vic would be the Lux Piper," started Gar. "Like, the computer whiz who can work any tech."

"How'd you figure that?" replied Victor, in a dark tone.

"Kori," Gar went on, "I see you flying and hitting people with the elements, like Lodestar."

Kori was the only one engaging with Gar, listening to his daydreaming with a sweet smile. "That sounds marvelous," she replied.

"Raven. I see you like, making illusions like Chameleon, you know? Like enchanting and cheating people."

"So I'm a witch," she surmised. "That's creative."

Gar turned to Dick, but Dick beat him to it. "Gar, your power would be amazing distraction, keeping the rest of us from getting any work done."

Gar frowned at him. "Okay, you know what? You'd have no powers. None at all. You get left out of everything. And you feel terrible about it."

Dick seemed strangely ticked off. "That would never happen," he said. "If anything I'd be Kismet. She mainly fights physically. Her powers are an extra."

"She's so good at fighting because she has the precognition," Raven argued.

Before Dick could protest, another explosion went off.

"What's the point of studying now if they're probably gonna tell us to evacuate in a sec?" Gar posed.

As if on cue, Vic's phone buzzed. "Yep, that's the notification," he informed the others. "They're telling us to get out of here."

The five picked up their backpacks and coats. Victor pulled out his emergency bag from his closet, put his laptop inside, and took it as well as his school bag.

"What would be your powers, Gar?" Kori asked as they left the room.

Gar shrugged. "I don't know."

Vic could tell without looking at him that he was waiting for someone else to ascribe powers to him, like he'd done for everyone else.

Kori was the one to humor him. "Well, you love animals. Perhaps you would turn into animals!"

"Hm." Gar assumed a thinking poise, but he was obviously satisfied. "That's cool, I guess."

The fight sounded louder outside. Gar peered north of Vic's house and caught a glimpse of Paragon being slammed against a building. He smiled when the hero took back to the skies via an ice bridge.

Was it arrogant to say he felt a kinship to the Titans now? Like the five of them were now part of something bigger than themselves—a web of people doing good things for other people? Okay, so maybe they had put the idea of using the Club to help people on hold until midterms were over. And yes, when they had agreed to meet up today it was officially just to study, like none of them wanted to admit they were friends yet. Gar liked to think there was more to it, though. He liked to think they'd make something out of this—both the Club and each other. He let himself imagine things would be a smooth ride from here on out.

Vic called out to him. "Gar, come on. You're not getting out of studying so easily."

"Let's go to mine," Gar said, running after his friends.

They all liked going to Gar's house because it was so normal. It was a two-story, orderly place with a mom who offered them snacks; the weirdness of Steve also being a teacher was outset by the fact that he was so normal in his own house—strict in a TV dad way.

Rita came out with cookies in a bowl just now. She was a slender, remarkably young-looking woman, with flushed cheeks and soft brown hair that curled outwards at her shoulders in an almost sixties' style. Gar had told the others she'd been an Olympic swimmer, and had tried her hand at acting when she was younger, and they could see why; she was a charismatic and agreeable presence. She was now a swimming coach.

"I'm just glad my dad was at work for the evacuation," said Vic, munching on the cookies. "If he'd been cooped up in his home lab, it would've been hell trying to make him leave."

"Is your dad the okay?" Kori asked cautiously.

"You mean 'cause the house is such a mess?" asked Vic.

Kori covered her mouth delicately. "I… I mean…-"

Vic responded quickly, because he hadn't meant to put her on the spot. "He feels guilty." Vic looked like he was gearing up to say more. The others stayed silent to give him a chance to. "He didn't ask if he could do this to me," he said, raising his bionic arms. "I mean, I was in no position to sign a form or something, but… So he feels guilty about it, so he'd rather not see me. So he's never home. And we used to hire a cleaning service, but he doesn't like people to come if he's not home. And whenever he is home, he's not great at cleaning up after himself. I mean, I keep my own space clean. I'm not gonna clean up his mess." He dusted cookie crumbs off his hands and spoke louder, "The bright side is he tries to buy my love now! That's how I got my Mac." He patted his computer affectionately.

The others chuckled, accepting his attempt to lighten the mood after spilling out his guts like that.

After the cookie break, Vic passed his History guide around the group for them to take pictures of.

"Here's the class summary. Uh, I guess you can keep it, Raven, seeing as you don't have a phone," he said as an afterthought.

"Thanks," she muttered.

Steve Dayton passed through the living room in that moment and saw them taking pictures of the papers.

"I trust you're not copying homework," he said, coupling a warning tone with an affable smile. "I'd have to turn you in if you were."

"No, coach," said Victor, turning on his adult-charmer voice. "It's a class summary."

"Is that one of Mod's summaries of his history lessons?" Steve asked, peering over Victor's shoulder. He was a burly, broad-shouldered man, with a strong jawline and brown hair graying at the temples. His small blue eyes were always watchful, and he tended to stare accusatorily in general, as if just in case someone needed to confess to any wrongdoing.

"Yeah," said Vic. "He gave them out to us last year, but he didn't give it to the freshman class this year. That's why I'm sharing it with the group."

"Well, Mod's the most inconsistent man I've ever met," Steve said. "Doesn't follow lesson plans, never takes roll call… It's because he didn't want to be a teacher in the first place, you know? He wanted to be a fashion designer."

"What? Really?" Dick asked, four out of the five turning to Steve in interest.

"He went to fashion school," Steve continued. "I hear he had a shop for a while. It closed because he didn't get any customers." Considering he'd ingratiated himself sufficiently with the kids, he turned stern again. "No word of this at school," he warned, and left the room.

Gar rolled his eyes when he was gone. "He doesn't actually like you, you know. He just wants you to like him."

But his friends just said they had to be nice to teachers either way.

"Let's just move up to my room," Gar replied.

The first reaction to Gar's room was always 'Wow, you must really like green', because that was the nicest thing to focus on after the first real thing you noticed, which was the fact that it was a mess.

Because once you got past the clothes littering every inch of the floor, the half-open drawers and the crazy tokens everywhere –it didn't even seem like the mess had ever been created; it seemed like it had been there always, eternal, inescapable, weaved to the fabric of the universe-, you were bound to notice the fact that the walls, the bed sheets, the drawer tops, and most of the ornaments were all shades of green. A few movie posters decorating the walls were the only respite in the otherwise monochromatic room.

As the last one to enter, Raven closed the door behind her, and Gar went back and opened it halfway, because that was the rule when he had people over. He opened the window, pulled out a bird feeder with suction cups from under his bed, filled it, and stuck it outside the window.

Then he began to tell his friends about all the animals he fed. "There's the big white dog, and the brown Shepherd, and the Collie with mismatched eyes. And recently, there's been a horse that comes from-"

"A horse?" interjected Raven.

"Yeah, a horse," confirmed Gar, "She comes from one of the farms up north and lets me pet her. There's a family of four squirrels –I'm pretty sure they're always the same squirrels-, and then there's all the birds…" he paused. "I mean, I don't keep track of all the birds. That would be insane."

"And Steve has no clue why all those animals are constantly surrounding his house?" asked Dick.

"None at all," said Gar, grinning wide.

"You're a Disney princess," said Dick.

Kori giggled in delight. "Oh, what a lovely comparison!"

"I bet Rita and Steve love you for this," laughed Vic.

They had caught on by now that Gar had a thing with terminology around Rita and Steve. For some reason, he called Rita 'Rita' to her face, and 'mom' when she wasn't there. Steve was just 'Steve' in any situation. Someone saying 'your mom' was perfectly acceptable, but 'your parents' wasn't, and 'your dad' even less so.

Dick sat on the floor and anxiously cracked open a book. "Can we move on to Maths?"

Vic smiled at the four of them, so worried about the first batch of exams. He still remembered his first midterms.

This year the school had given all freshmen brand new notebooks specifically for test prepping, as one of those half-hearted measures to attempt for better scores. Vic had gotten one, since he was taking mostly ninth grade classes, but he didn't use it—he was fine with the ones he was already using. The other four were using theirs, like they considered it a charm to do well.

They went through Math and Geography, and it was dusk when Kori was done sharing her notes—Kori's class notes were the best.

Gar had been silently scribbling for a while before he suddenly turned his notebook around. "Hey, guys. Check it out."

It was a drawing of Mr. Mod. He stood before a full classroom (there were circles for people and rectangles with sticks for desks) and held up garishly colored clothes. A text bubble coming from his mouth read "New grading system! If you buy my clothes, you pass!"

Vic chuckled. "Okay, that's pretty funny. He would if he could."

"I knew you couldn't be studying," said Dick. He stood. "Well, that's it for me. My brain is full, and if you're not gonna study, I'm off."

"Would you like to share an Uber?" said Kori, also getting up.

"Yeah, it's late, anyway," said Vic, as Raven packed her things silently.

When they were all almost out the door, Gar looked through his notes and finally began to worry about tomorrow's Bio test. "Uh, Vic?" he asked. "Can you explain this osmosis thingy to me one more time?"

Victor looked at the shorter boy making puppy eyes, and sighed heavily.

It was two hours later when Vic finally left Gar's home, and the household sat down for dinner right after.

"You feel alright for tomorrow's test?" Rita asked Gar.

"Yeah, Vic explained everything really well," Gar replied, praying that enough things had actually stuck to his brain.

"You keep that one close," said Steve. "He's the only one out of your new friends that's worth anything."

"You just say that 'cause he played sports," Gar replied.

"I say that because he's respectful and honest, and has a good head over his shoulders."

In reality, Gar knew Steve was saying that because Vic had duped him with his Nice Boy façade like he duped every other adult. But he ate his potatoes and said nothing. He wasn't gonna blow Vic's cover.

"I mean, that Grayson kid?" Steve continued. "He has an evil look in his eyes. I almost prefer it when he's got those stupid sunglasses on. And that girl who's dressed in black. You know there's rumors she thinks she's a witch?"

"Oh, every teenage girl goes through a witch phase," said Rita. "Steve, I know you're gonna say you know those kids more than I do, but I happen think Gar's friends are alright kids."

Gar smiled gratefully at her, though she avoided the look. Too much of Rita siding with Gar would surely tip Steve over the edge. For now, since Rita had spoken lightly and then paid close attention to her plate, Steve's only reaction was to look resentful.

"All I'm saying is you could find some better friends," Steve insisted. "Some who aren't so… such freaks."

Gar pushed his food around with his fork. "Steve, I'm a freak. Look at me."

Steve made a pause that was the calm before the storm. "You live under my roof," he boomed. He wasn't quite yelling, but this was no longer a conversation. Gar stopped eating. "I'm responsible for you and I have to worry about who you hang out with. If I don't want you to hang out with certain kids, you should know there's a reason for it. Listen to me or don't, but I know better than you."

"Steve…" tried Rita.

Steve kept boring holes into Gar's face. "Do you hear me, Gar? Can you at least admit I have more life experience than you do?"

There was no way around it. Gar internally sighed, straightened his back, made his face blank, looked at Steve and said, "Yes, sir."

Thankfully, the deference was enough that Steve calmed down. He allowed the meal to continue in peace and was soon talking with Rita normally. Gar finished eating in silence.