"...Cass Cain," Cass said as she hesitantly shook the clingy girl's hand. This "Stephanie" had a surprisingly good grip for the perky blonde type.
"Oh, cool name!" Stephanie said as she finally finished shaking Cass's hand. "I'm Stephanie. Uh, but then, you knew that, right?" She giggled. So, she was the type who liked to giggle. Big shock.
"Right," Cass muttered. "So, uh, I got Algebra next, I better start heading there." Okay, Stephanie seemed like a nice enough girl, but Cass wasn't in the mood to chat with someone she just met, and was really hoping that Stephanie would pick up on the hint...
"Hey, that's my next class, let's go together!"
Dammit. It was starting to look like Cass had her own shadow for the day. A very chipper shadow.
"So," Cass started awkwardly as Stephanie walked side by side with her. "You, uh, new here, or something?" And is there a reason you want to keep talking to me?
"First day," Stephanie answered, unaware or undaunted by Cass's reluctance to talk. "I actually just moved here a few days ago, all the way from Gotham."
Cass couldn't help but chuckle. "Seriously? You, of all people, are from that shithole?"
"It's not a shithole!" Stephanie raised her voice, her cheeriness replaced with defensive frustration.
Cass merely gave Stephanie a skeptical smirk.
"...Okay, yeah, it's pretty bad... But we've got a lot of great stuff too!"
"Really? Like what?" Cass had to admit, she was enjoying this conversation much more than she expected. "Mass murdering clowns? A himbo that collects orphans like Pokémon cards? The worst superhero on the Justice League?"
"What?!" Stephanie actually stopped in her tracks, looking genuinely offended and more than a little confused. "What are you talking about? Batman's the best!"
"How would you know? No one knows anything about the guy!" Cass pointed out. "All you see him do is shake hands with Superman and show up with the psychos after beating them where no one could see him!"
"It - it makes him mysterious!"
"Yeah, a clueless mystery. Literally!"
Stephanie opened her mouth, stopped, and shook her head, looking more weirded out than anything. "Well, maybe if you-"
-(let them be happy)-
Cass blinked and jerked her head back, her brow scrunching in confusion. Stephanie was saying something, but suddenly she started talking in complete gibberish, like she was possessed and speaking in tongues. Did Cass just mishear her or something? "Wait, what?"
"I said maybe if-"
-(let them be happy)-
And it happened again. The hallway wasn't that loud, was it? Was Stephanie showing off her Klingon? Or just pulling one over Cass? Well, if she was, Cass didn't really have time for it, so she just shrugged and continued walking.
After a second, Stephanie rushed up to her, all smiles again. "So, what about you? How long have you lived here?"
"Uhhh, all my life?" Cass answered, cringing internally at the conversation turning personal. In retrospect, she shouldn't have made a big deal about where Stephanie was from, if this was where the conversation was going.
"...Really," Stephanie turned away for a second. For a brief moment Cass was afraid she was going to pull some I'm A Big City Girl thing and make some pithy comment on Cass being a country mouse or some bullshit, but she turned back with her grin remaining perfectly friendly. "That's cool. You must have... a lot of good memories about this town."
"I... guess?" Cass responded sheepishly. Weird way to put it, but maybe Stephanie was more understanding than Cass gave her credit for-
"So, what are your parents like?"
Ughhh! What is this, Personal Question Hour? It was getting so weird, why exactly was Cass so interesting to this cheerful cheerleader-type -
Wait a fucking minute.
"Oh, shit. I know what this is," Cass stopped walking and rubbed the brow between her eyes in exasperation.
Stephanie's eyebrows shot straight up. "You do?!"
"Yeah, and I'm sorry, but I'm not doing it. I'm not going."
"What?!" Stephanie practically yelped as she edged closer to Cass, looking around the two of them in all directions. "You have to!" she implored, keeping her voice low. "Cass, what's going on, what's happeni-"
"I mean, I'm not even into cheerleading!"
Stephanies mouth hung open mid-word, staring unblinkingly as she tried to comprehend the words that just came from Cassandra Cain's mouth. "...What."
"Look, I get it," Cass continued, trying to sound sympathetic to the slightly annoying tool of her mother. "Really. You train for hours every day carrying and throwing people in the air and trying to make sure you don't break a leg or something when you fall, and then no one takes you seriously because it's "a girls' sport". That sucks. That really fucking sucks. But I don't like performing for crowds, and I'm not really a team player, I'd just be holding you back-"
"No, no, that's - I'm new, I don't know anyone here yet! I just wanted to get to know someone!" Stephanie seemed like she was trying not to scream as she spoke. "I don't want to invite you to cheerleading, I'm not even on the team!"
Cass blinked slowly. Her head tilted slightly. "So... you're not here because my mom asked you to recruit me?"
"No! I never - I never even met your mom!"
...Wow. This was embarrassing.
Cass awkwardly shifted in place before clearing her throat, breaking the silence. "I'm... sorry. I misjudged you."
"It's okay," Stephanie shrugged. "I probably started prying too much anyways."
"No, I get it," Cass shook her head. "Believe me, I know how much it sucks to be the new kid, I should have known. And hey, I'm sorry I made fun of your hometown. It's not like I've ever been there to see it myself."
Stephanie looked away. "...Right."
"...Yup," Cass popped the "p" as she said it. "So... I'm just gonna go take a piss before Algebra?" she said, pointing her thumb to the bathrooms.
"Oh, sure go ahead," Stephanie nodded, her smile a little sad.
Cass nodded back, then headed into the girl's room.
(...)
Soon after, Cass finished her business and flushed the toilet, wondering if Stephanie was waiting for her or started heading to class on her own. Cass wouldn't blame her if she did leave. What the hell happened back there? Cass was usually way better at reading people. Was this girl just so irritating that she assumed the worst of her?
...No, Stephanie wasn't the problem. What was it her mom said a few days ago? That Cass only let in a few people and shut everyone else out? Maybe there was some truth to that. Thing was, Cass had grown very comfortable among her small group of friends that were happily invisible amidst the hellscape that was high school. So getting approached by a peppy blonde barnacle that grasped on and refused to let go might have put Cass a little more on edge than she realized.
Cass sighed as she walked to the sink and started washing her hands. Okay, if she ran into Stephanie again, she could stand to be a little nicer instead of trying to be "not rude". Yeah, Stephanie wasn't the kind of person Cass saw herself making friends with, but she did end up acting kinda shitty to her, even if it was a misunderstanding. She could probably at least-
...
Someone was watching Cass.
Cass stood up straight, suddenly alert. No one was here, right? All the stalls were empty when she came in. But she got this prickle on the back of her neck, this feeling - almost more of an instinct - that eyes had their gaze on her. Eyes she couldn't see, but could see her.
"Hello?" Cass called out as she whipped her head around, her voice echoing on the bathroom walls. She didn't see anyone in the stalls when she walked in, but maybe she missed them somehow? She looked in the space between the door and the floor. No shoes. Was she imagining something?
Or were they keeping their legs up, hiding from her?
"Hey!" Cass called out one more time before heading to the first stall, slamming the door open. Nothing. She went to the next stall and did the same thing. Again, no one was there. She tried each of the stalls in a row, again and again and again, until the last one was slammed wide open, just as empty as all the others.
What the hell is going on? Cass wondered as she backed up to the sink. The bathroom didn't even have windows! How could someone be watching her here?
Cass turned back to the sink, turned it on and began washing her face furiously, as if she could wash the paranoia out of her. She never freaked out like this before! Why was she so sure someone was watching her! Cass finally stopped washing her face, taking in deep breaths as she looked at her face in the mirror-
The mirror.
It - it sparked something in her. Seeing it like this, in the bathroom after getting embarrassed, seeing her face in the mirror - it sparked something in her that was buried deep. It reminded her of
The girl snuck into the room. She still couldn't believe she almost got caught out of her sleeping place like a normal person. Yes, she was asleep at the time but that wasn't the point! At least she got away before they saw her, but now she couldn't go back, she liked that sleeping place and didn't like that she almost got caught after all her training.
At least this room could cheer her up a little. She walked up to the dirty sheet of glass with her face on them. It was better than the clear ones on buildings because the girl could see her face better in it, even if it was dirty and near the pooping bowl. The girl stuck her tongue out and pulled the corner of her mouth down, giggling at the face in the glass.
The girl heard the door behind her click, making her stop having fun and slide under the walls surrounding the pooping bowl, watching the door open. A man rushed in, his grey beard scraggly, his dirty face twitching, and the needle in his hand shaking. He pierced the skin on his arms with the needle, pushing the liquid inside. Suddenly, he snapped around, his mouth-sounds loud. The girl could see his body say that he was sure there was an intruder, even though he didn't see her. He began to forcefully approach the stall.
The girl began to clench her fist and pull it back-
Cass cried out, a sudden pain on her fist as she drew it back. She opened her eyes to see bruised knuckles and a faucet flung off the sink, water spraying everywhere.
Cass gripped her bruised hand as her mind raced with what just happened. What the fuck was that? I get paranoid for no reason, then I hallucinate myself as an eight year old in a gas station bathroom? Was I somehow not thinking in words? What just-
-(let them be happy)-
...What was I just thinking?
Cass blinked as she took in the scene. Idiot! I get the goosebumps for a nanosecond, so I whirl around and punch off the faucet? Christ, what is wrong with me today?!
The bathroom door opened, and Stephanie Brown walked in. "Cass, I heard you shout-" She stopped in her tracks, gaping at the scene of water spraying like a geyser out of the facuetless sink and the teenage girl holding her bruised hand in the middle. "What the hell is going on?!"
"What does it look like!" Cass shouted. "Get the fucking janitor!"
...Okay, next time she'd try to be nicer to Stephanie.
(...)
Three Hours Later:
As Stephanie walked to the cafeteria, she reflected on the success of her mission so far.
There was room for improvement.
In her defense, she did do what she was supposed to do, get close to the seemingly brainwashed Cassandra Cain and try to gauge what was going on and what she did and didn't remember without risking her having an aneurysm. And so far, she was getting a pretty good idea of what Cass remembered.
Which was to say; nothing at all.
Cass didn't see her best friend when she looked at Steph, she saw "the new kid". She claimed that she had never even been to Gotham and lived in Elmville all her life. Her idol, Batman, was someone she barely knew anything about and casually mocked him. In spite of the insane body reading abilities Cass was supposed to have, she didn't seem to be able to see any of Stephanie's lies, minor half-truths or not, and came to some bizarre conclusion about the PTA-empowered Lady Shiva using Steph as a proxy to recruit Cass to the cheerleading squad, a misunderstanding that would have been hilarious if it wasn't all so surreal.
Then there were the things that Stephanie didn't know what to think of. Like when she suggested Cass could just go to Gotham to judge it for herself, Cass just looked like Steph had suddenly started speaking Kryptonian and didn't answer. Then there was the bathroom thing. When she brought Cass to the nurse and the follow-up explanation of property damage to the vice principal (thankfully, Oracle's fake transfer records seemed to hold up for Stephanie), Cass had claimed she just got a little spooked by something - something not even Cass seemed to be sure of - and hit the faucet by accident. Hard enough that the admittedly less than sturdy faucet flew off. What the hell was that all about?
Still, things were working out. Cass was grateful enough about Stephanie taking her to the nurse's office that she offered Steph to sit at her and her friends' lunch table. And thankfully, it was pizza day, which amongst the morass of high school food was basically nectar and ambrosia.
Stephanie paid for her slice put it on her lunch tray, taking a look across the crowded cafeteria. Sure enough, a bandaged hand rose from somewhere in the back.
"Yo! Gotham Girl! Over here!"
Wrong hero, Steph thought as she headed over the to the table. She took a seat next to Cass, her hoodie now apparently dry since Steph saw her last, though she still had her cap off. On Cass's other side was a deadpan goth girl, and across the table were two boys, one white and one black. The white one had a nervous expression, curly dark hair, and a leather jacket, while the other had glasses, muscles, and a Blue Beetle t-shirt (Ted Kord, not Jaime Reyes).
"Hey," Stephanie waved to the table. "I'm Stephanie. Or Steph, I'm good with whatever."
"Hattie," the goth girl replied in a flat tone, casually taking a sip from her water bottle.
"I'm Kyle," the gentle face boy quietly waved a hand in a cast.
"I'm Dylan," the apparent superhero fan said. "Are you really from Gotham?"
"Uh, yeah," Stephanie answered. "Born and raised."
"Oh, cool!" Dylan broke into a grin. "You came from a city with a real superhero-"
Stephanie inwardly preened under the praise. It was nice that someone appreciated the city that had Batm-
"-Alan Scott! Hey, is his oath different than the newer Lanterns? Help me settle a bet."
...Seriously?
"Lay off the new kid, dude," said Cass, her mouth half-full of pepperoni pizza. "She doesn't need to get wrapped up in your nerd crap."
Dylan shrugged. "Whatever. Not like Kyle doesn't owe me a lot already."
"I told you, man, I'm waiting on my check for my last fanart commission! I would have done more if this didn't happen!" Kyle cut in, waving his cast indignantly.
"Dude, I told you not to try a gazelle flip!"
"Cass did it!"
"Yeah, but I'm me," Cass pointed out as she gave a proud smirk.
"Um, a gazelle flip?" Stephanie asked.
"It's a skateboard trick. Pretty complicated. If you're not a natural talent," Cass answered as she took a drink of soda smugly enough to look like she was advertising it.
"Oh, good. Cass's ego survived her injury intact," Hattie dryly commented.
"Hey, I'm not gonna be judged by someone who brought a salad from home on pizza day!" Cass sneered at the greens in front of Hattie.
"Speaking of, how is your hand, Cass?" Stephanie took the opportunity to ask.
"Eh, just bruised," Cass shrugged as she examined her bandaged hand. "Ice pack made it go down pretty quick. I just hope it goes away quick too; I do not need my parents freaking out about it."
"On the plus side, we match!" Kyle lifted his cast and wiggled his visible fingertips while sporting a goofy grin.
Cass chuckled. "You're such a dork," she muttered, before taking on a thoughtful expression. "Actually... that might work. If I just tell them it was a skateboarding thing, they won't ask the school about it, and they won't worry about me."
"The school won't tell them anyways?" Stephanie wondered.
There was a chorus of snickers around the table.
"So long as she didn't break any bones or start bleeding or anything, I don't think they're legally required to bring more attention to themselves," Dylan explained. "It's not as if Cass's mom hasn't already threatened to sue a lot of people here over the dyslexia thing."
"Welcome to Elmville High, newbie," Hattie waved her arm in a sweeping motion as if unveiling the school. "Where our motto is... 'Eh, close enough'."
Now Stephanie joined in the snickers, even as she mentally catalogued the info about Cass's dyslexia.
"Would that even work, though?" Dylan asked Cass. "I don't even remember the last time you got hurt skateboarding, it's not like you get hurt every other week like Kyle,-"
"Hey!"
"-think they'll buy it?"
"It has been a while," Cass admitted. "But I used to get bruises all the time as a kid, they're used to it. Hell, once I got some from using weights too heavy for me; they had to talk me down to fifty pounders."
"God, your whole family is insane," Hattie took a bite of her salad and crunched judgmentally.
"Oh, like you'd know what 'feeling the burn' is like," Cass playfully nudged the dark dressed girl beside her. "Maybe next time you won't just stand on the sidelines when we all go to the skate park today."
"Ew. Sweat. Thanks, but no thanks," Hattie waved Cass's offer off, but smiled nevertheless.
As Cass continued her banter with her friends, Stephanie quietly realized something. Cass definitely didn't act the same, that went without saying. She talked far more, at least with those she was close with. There was none of the lilt or hesitancy in her speech she still struggled with at times. She had no indication of any of her combat training or her absurd body reading abilities. She casually swore, didn't size up a person upon meeting them automatically, and was far more relaxed.
And yet, it was still Cassandra Cain.
She still had this element of determination, the desire to be second to none and go forward. She worked her body to its very limit and beyond. She had pride bordering on arrogance and enjoyed needling people here and there. She didn't like introducing herself to new people unless she had to, that was certainly obvious. But she also clearly treasured those closest to her. She had a desire to make up for her mistakes, given Steph's very presence at the lunch table. She even still had her dyslexia, apparently, and she showed no sign of letting it hold her back.
But why was she here? Why didn't she remember any pieces of her old life? If there was so much of the old Cass still in there, why couldn't she recognize her best friend?
It was then that Cass did a double take towards Stephanie. "Dude, why are you staring at me? I got something on my face or something?"
"Oh!" Stephanie straightened up, realizing she was staring. "Uh, yeah, actually. Pizza sauce."
"Shit. Thanks," Cass said as she wiped her face with a napkin.
"So," Stephanie began. "You guys said you were going to the skate park this afternoon? Is it okay if I tag along?"
"You can skate?" Kyle asked.
"Sure, a bit!" Stephanie nodded. At least assuming riding on a randomly found skateboard while hooked onto a gettaway car while the occupants were shooting at you counted. "I'm not too familiar with the trick names or anything, but I can follow along."
"Oh, then yeah!" Kyle lit up, nodding.
"Sounds cool to me," Dylan nodded once.
"Eh, you want to sweat, be my guest," Hattie shrugged.
Cass looked at Steph thoughtfully for an agonizing few seconds before shrugging also. "If you can keep up, Gotham Girl, why not?"
"All right!" Stephanie smiled, quietly texting the plans to the rest of the sidekicks. Yes, this trip wasn't turning out like how any of them suspected, but this was still Cass. Stephanie was getting closer to her even as the "new kid", and they'd figure out what happened to her soon. It wouldn't be too long until they had the old Cass back and in Gotham.
Right?