Ch. 1: The Hive
The Hive Update: "Hello everyone! It's the first day of school, I can't wait to see all the juicy details I missed over the summer and meet all the newbies. So Good Morning to my favs and nice to meet you fresh meat." - Hive
Kory stands in front of her bedroom mirror smoothing out her black pleated skirt. "What do you think Donna? Do you think it needs something?" Donna, Kory's best friend was sitting on FaceTime contemplating her appearance. "Hmm, I'd take out the clip from your hair. It's your first day you must make some type of impression,"
"I wouldn't want to make an impression at all, I'm fine with just being a nobody." She fixed her sweater over her button up blouse, "Hate to break it to you Kor, but your appearance doesn't exactly say 'blend in' I mean that in the nicest way possible," "You're right I should wear a hat or something," Kory grabs a beanie from her closet and covers her hair with it.
"Kory, are you okay? It's okay to be nervous on the first day—""—I'm fine Don. Don't worry, I'll call you as soon as I'm out!" "Um okay, take pics for me! Love ya!" She blows her a kiss before ending the call. "Kory! Breakfast!" "Coming!" Kory takes another look at herself tucking under the piece of hair sticking out the cap, grabs her things and runs down for breakfast. As she walks down the stairs, Galfore is wearing a frilly finishing cooking the last pancake and lays it on a small stack. "Morning Uncle" He turns to her with a plate of food in his hand and a smile on his face, "Morning Kory! I made you breakfast for your first day at Gotham High!"
She walks over to grab the plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs "You really didn't have to, I would have been fine with just a piece of toast and orange juice," The sounds of him whistling to himself tunes her out, Kory rolls her eyes and begins to nibble on a piece of bacon.
"I'll be driving you to school today, then once it's over you could catch the bus. I'll show you the stops and such before I drop you off," "Okay. What time will you be off from work?" "About six, I'll bring something home," She nodded then continued to finish her food.
Dick was jogging across the track, sweat dripping from his forehead, and Victor followed right behind him. "So how bad did Bruce bust you after seeing the Hive blast?" He said through his panting breath, "About two weeks, no tv, and no parties," "Brutal. On the bright side at least, he didn't ban you from the Welcome Back Luncheon," "Please he's hosting the damn thing, I have to make an appearance,".
They finish running their last lap and sit on the field next to a snoring Wally. Vic pushes him over, he snorts to himself "Five more minutes mom," they snicker before jolting him awake. "What took you guys so long?" "Not everyone could finish their laps in under three minutes Wal," Victor interjected. "That's not my problem Vic, besides we are the only sophomores to make Varsity. I gotta strut my stuff somehow," Dick rolled his eyes. It's true they were the only underclassmen to have made Varsity, nobody could tackle five men at once like Vic could, run many yards in a small amount of time like Wally, and throw the ball as wide as him.
Although, that didn't stop the upperclassmen players to give them crap for it as initiation the three were subjected to being their servers for two weeks. That included washing their jock straps, getting them their lunch, and washing their cars. One time Wally even had to dye his hair royal blue and run the school in white underwear to sport the school's colors, and let's just say Gotham High has one of the biggest acreages in the country.
It was tradition though, when rookies were drafted into varsity you had to be welcomed by the team somehow. The blow of the whistle from the coach shook Dick out of his thoughts, "Alright ladies, now that summer practices is over, we have a game in about 4 days and I wanna keep that invisible record going! We'll be having morning practices, and after school practices for the whole semester. I'll be checking with your teachers every week to make sure that your grades aren't slipping, if they are, you're on probation.
If there's any disciplinary issues, you're on probation. If you're taking drugs of any kind that aren't prescribed you're—" "—On probation?" Wally snickered, no one followed, he tried to cover it with a cough, but it was too late. The coach stared at him with an unreadable expression, "Wallace, is it?" "Um, Wally sir."
"Hmph. I don't do well with wise cracks or delinquents on my team, so this time I'll give you a warning. Next time won't be so pretty understand?" He gulped, "Yes coach," Coach nodded before continuing his speech, "Back to what I was saying selling or taking drugs results in automatic expulsion from the team. I don't accept tardiness, absences unless by emergency, and self-appointed breaks, do I make myself clear?" "Yes sir!" The whole team yelled, "Good. Now it's time for some drills, welcome to Varsity practice rookies!" The boys got up from the field dusting themselves off "Way to get on the Coach's bad side Wally," Vic teased,
"Shut up Vic, thanks for not having my back with the joke earlier," "Dude, I wasn't about to get my ass roasted by coach on the first day," they continued to argue in the background as Dick ran to the sidelines and grabbed his phone. Three missed calls from Babs.
Rachel Roth sat in the corner of the library reading one of her favorite books by Edgar Allen Poe. Her eyes skimmed along the last lines replaying the scenario in her head. Her purple streaked hair covered the side of her face adding a mysterious shadow to her, and she gnawed on the cardigan that covered her scars. Behind her hair laid a small scratch given to her by her father, telling her it was for her own good.
She tapped against the pages of the book with her thumb humming quietly to herself, not noticing the green-haired boy sneaking up behind her. "Boo!" Gar says earning a stern shh from the librarian and an eye roll from Rachel. "What do you want Gar?" "Aw man, I thought I'd get you for sure," "Nope, you have very heavy feet could hear you from when you began to tip toe," she said not looking up from her book. He sighed and sat down next to her, "You heard what happened with Dick on The Hive?" "Nope, I don't invest in social media nor should you,"
"He totally got busted for getting wasted with that Roy harper kid, geez, good thing we're a couple of nobodies, right?" He tried to give Rachel a pat on the back, she flinched away and turned to him in annoyance "What the hell are you doing?" Sweat started to form on his head. "Um, just a friendly gesture that's all, heh." "Don't," she closed her book and began to put her things in her backpack, the library door opened revealing a girl with golden brown skin, a gray beanie on, and a sticker covered backpack. "Hey, who's that girl?" Gar nudged at Rachel, she didn't look up from putting her things away, "Don't know, don't care."
The girl put down her backpack and took out her phone. "I think she's new," "So don't bother her," "what if she needs to make some friends? We could help," "Gar, do what you want to do. I'm gonna head to class," Rachel grabs her backpack and runs out of the library. Garfield walks over to where the unfamiliar girl is sitting, he takes a glance at her backpack and sees the alien sticker plastered on it, "No way," she jumps "You're interested in aliens too?" "Um yeah, I can kind of relate to them you know?" "Totally, I feel the exact same way. Why do you think I dyed my hair green," she chuckled, "I'm Garfield Logan, but you could just call me Gar," He puts out his hand, showing his braces covered smile. The girl stares down at his hand for a moment then shakes it, "Kory Anders," "Nice to meet you Kory, what brings you to Gotham High?" Kory retracts her hand quickly; she fiddles with her sweater.
"Um, I just moved here from Tamaran—" "Tamaran? Cool! Never heard of it," "It's a small island close to the Bahamas," He nodded as if he understood, they stood there in silence until Kory finally spoke up, "Gar, what's Gotham High like," "Gotham High, hmm. You ever seen the movie Mean Girls?" "Um no—" "you've never see the movie? Oh Kory we have to catch you up to speed, so it's about this girl named Cady who comes from Africa—""—Gar, I don't mean to be rude, but how does this connect with school?"
"Oh well, the cliques in the movie are kind of like the ones here, except there's like more interesting people you know. Also, this is where Gotham's richest families kids go to, they're the popular people of the school," "Are they nice?" "Some are, some aren't" he shrugged, "Have you ever heard of this blog called The Hive?" "No," "Well it's the blog that dishes out the dirt on all the kids in school,"
"Including you?" "Ha! I'm a nobody, the hive only reports on people that create buzz. Get it, buzz?" "Oh, is this where I was supposed to laugh," He chuckled at her comment "I like your sass Kory reminds me of my friend Rae, you'll meet her soon. Anyway, you should be careful around the Hive, if there's a secret you have, they're bound to find out," "Th-they are?" Kory begins to tug at her sweater, Gar continues on "That's only if you're like worthy enough for them to talk about you, unless your like me, Rae, and a couple of other people," Kory contemplated at this, then nodded beginning to understand,
"What's your schedule?" "Oh, I'm not sure—" "Well if you want before we head to homeroom I could show you where to get it," "That'd be great Gar! Thank you!," She gave him one of her infamous bone-crushing hugs causing him turn different colors, "Kory, can't…breath," "Oh whoops, sorry!"
Victor Stone strutted down the hallway with books in his hand, he waved at people who talked to him and smiled. He stopped in front of a window and checked himself out, brushing the lint off his bald head, and checking his teeth for any food. He winked to himself before continuing down the hallway, his eyes landed on a beautiful African American girl putting the last of her books in her locker. She twirled through her coily dark brown hair and applied some brown lip-gloss to her perfectly plump lips. "Honeybee!" Vic yelled from across the room causing some stares towards his way including his girlfriend, Karen.
"Hey baby, you're looking very sexy today," "You know I had to dress up for my girl, since this is our…" he counted on his fingers, "Fourth year as a power couple," she lightly kissed him, only for Vic to grab her waist and pull her in for another, "Vic, what if someone sees?" "Let them" they continued their make out session, Dick walked by and disguised his voice to sound like a teacher's "No PDA in the halls," Vic and Karen jumped far from each other,
"Very funny, Dick," Karen swatted at him as he snickered, "You had me thinking I was gonna get detention and I cannot get detention on the first day of school," "Oh yeah, I forgot you cheerleaders have to keep a squeaky clean image," "Exactly, and one detention on my record means—" "—No cheerleading captain," Vic and Dick said simultaneously, "Have I said that before?" "Only like a thousand times," Dick scrolled through his phone checking to see if there were any more messages from Babs, "How's Babs?" Karen asked as she put Vic's arm around her.
Dick scratched at the back of his neck, "I'm not sure, we haven't talked all summer, I've been trying to reach her but she's not exactly returning any of my messages," "Maybe you should send her flowers, that always helps when me and Bee are in a fight," "That and I just can't stay mad at you my big bear," He plants a kiss on her forehead earning a gag from Dick. "I'm really trying to keep my breakfast down, thanks," "Oh whatever, you and Babs are worse than us," A high chimed bell interrupts them indicating the first bell to get to class.
"Walk me to homeroom— ""—Of course my honeybee—""Not you Dick," She swats away at him before Vic grabs her books and they head in the opposite direction. Dick opens his phone, typing in a number, and heads his way toward his homeroom, "Hey Babs, it's me. Listen whatever it is you're mad at me about— "Before he could finish his sentence, a text notification beeps on his phone. He looks down and sees the text reading, Hive Update. He clicks on the bar and sees a photo of a very familiar looking girl sitting at the table across from a guy in a baseball cap.
"I spy with my little eye, a happy and healthy Barbara Gordon on a date with someone who's not Dick Grayson. Am I suspecting trouble in paradise with Gotham's Favorite It Couple?" Dick closes his phone in frustration and bangs his hand against a nearby locker. "Dammit!" He screamed and punched the locker again. "Eh-hem," someone cleared their throat behind him.
Kory stood behind the angry boy, clutching her textbooks and schedule to her chest. He turned around in annoyance, "Can I help you?" his voice dripped of anger, "Are you okay?" "That's none of your business—""—Well it became my business when you screamed out a couple seconds ago and took out your anger by punching my locker,"
They stared each other down before he rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and walked away from the locker "Whatever," he muttered to himself taking another glance at Kory who didn't take her eyes off him. She blew out a breath and opened her locker that had a bit of the paint chipped due to the troubled boy's fist. As she filled the books in, two people yelling filled the hollowness of the hallway.
A blonde girl wearing a pink ensemble was screaming at a very tall man with a large coat on and a Bluetooth in his ear. "Daddy, it's not fair! I'm not the only girl to hook up with Mr. Mod," "You are the one that got caught on that stupid gossip website and now your school reputation is in jeopardy!" "Daddy can't you just snap your fingers and make it go away?" "It's not that easy Kitten, I must talk to the school board, the principal, teachers, you got yourself into this mess and now it's up to me to get you out of it. I hope your happy young lady," "I only did him because I was failing the class, he came unto me Daddy, I like swear," He rolled his eyes then began to type away at his phone as the girl named Kitten continued to whine.
She stops her whining momentarily when she sees Kory staring at her. "What are you staring at freak?" "Your incessant whining was corrupting my train of thought and I wanted to see where the shrilling noise coming from," Kory retorted back, Kitten gritted her teeth "Oh hell no, do you know who I am? Apparently not, cause otherwise you wouldn't dare talk to me this way," She began to stomp over to Kory before Kitten's dad looked up from his phone and snapped his fingers, "Come now Kitten, no need in conversating with the commoners," He snapped his fingers at her again and she followed her dad not keeping her eyes off Kory.
"Watch your back, freak" She seethed before turning away and sashaying to keep up with her dad's footsteps. Kory sighed to herself, "So much for going unnoticed," she slammed the locker and headed to her homeroom class.
Karen sat down in her desk surrounded by the other cheerleaders, scrolling through old photos of her and Vic. A girl with pink hair put into pigtails looked over her shoulder "Geez Bee, how many pics do you and Vic have together," She turned to her in annoyance, "For your information Jinx, we only have at least 50 pics together," "Seems like more than 50 if you ask me—" "—Please you're just jealous of me and my man," Jinx rolled her eyes, Bee continued to scroll through her photos until one in particular caught her eye. It was a picture of her, Vic, and Herald at the carnival together in sixth grade right before Vic and her started to go out.
She has just got her braces off, Vic started to lose his baby fat, and Herald still sported his Harry Potter glasses. They all used to be such good friends, though the friendship started to drift apart when Herald admitted to Karen the feelings, he had for her and instead of responding she went out with Vic when he told her the same thing. Herald didn't have the same status as Vic held, he was considered a band geek, and no one would dare catch Karen with a geek. At the age of 12 Karen began to worry about status and who dated who. The person you dated in junior high and high school stamped who you were as a person and determined your status.
The group began to drift apart, Herald became more reserved and colder; only acknowledging her when the band had to learn to play a particular song for the cheerleaders. He moved away the middle of freshman year without so much as a good bye. "Bee…Bee….Bee…." Two fingers were snapping her out of her gaze, Karen turned to Jinx looking at her in concern "I've been calling your name for like five minutes, you okay?" She shook her head, "Yeah fine. I guess I just blanked for a sec," Jinx was about to mention something when a text notification went off on everyone's phones, The Hive had sent out a video.
The video showed none other than Gotham High's star quarterback, Xavier Redd, at a party snorting what looked to be like cocaine. "I told you this was gonna be an interesting school year. Our very own quarterback, a druggie who knew? Looks like that's the end of his career, football career that is. Without the star quarterback and a scandal like this what's Gotham High to do. TTYL" Murmurs filled the classroom, "Oh my God, Xavier" "He's a druggie?" "What's gonna happen to him?" Jinx and Bee exchanged a similar look, "Who's the 2nd string quarterback?" One of the cheerleaders asked, "Dick is,".
A girl with a gray beanie, and sweater covering her uniform on came in the abrupt classroom with a slip in her hand. Madame Rouge walked over to her, and looked at her slip, she shook her hand then gestured for her to take a seat. Karen watched as the girl tried her best to blend in with the background and sat at the back of the classroom with her head down the whole time. "Who's that girl?' Karen wondered to herself before Madame Rouge tapped against board gaining everyone's attention.
The Hive Update: "Well how was that for the beginning of the first day of school drama? And I'm just getting started, there's more things that I know, that some are dying to find out and others who are dying inside. Stay tuned for the buzz on Gotham's elite. Ciao" - Hive.
