CHAPTER 3

Alex drove her little sister to school. On the radio someone began talking about Superman's latest feat of danger. Kara perked up in hearing about her cousin's acts of heroism. One day she thought she might do the same thing. However, for now, her only job was to get an education and keep her desire to save the world a secret from her protective family.

She talked with Winn before school. Then Cisco walked over with Barry by his side. "Hey Winn, Felicity just told me Ray's going to be stopping by after school today!" Cisco said. Barry looked at Kara. He just tried to admire her a little but couldn't because there was just too much to be admired.

"That's awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing that guy!" Winn responded. Kara looked back at Barry and they faintly smiled at each other. Cisco picked up on their moment and was a good wingman.

"Oh sorry! Winn, Kara, this is Barry, we met this summer," Cisco introduced him. Barry waved and smiled big, bigger the vast oceans of the world. As Barry and Cisco left, Kara had a sort of dreamy look in her eyes. Winn elbowed her in the gut.

"Ouch," Kara looked at him confused and offended.

"Somebody has a cruuuuushhh!" he teased. And Kara blushed confirming his suspicion. They walked to their class.

…

"Hey, you want to meet some British people?" Jax asked.

"Huh? Wally replied. The rest of the group looked intrigued.

"Two transfer students just came from England and they are sitting with James from our basketball team!" he waved his friends up, "C'mon!" So Kara, Wally, Jax, and Jesse all wandered over to James's table. James sat with the athletes. He and Eddie played both football and basketball. They also sat with Iris West and Lucy Lane who did track. "Sup James!" Jax said.

"Hey man wassup?" James responded giving Jax a high five.

"Just want to welcome your new friends to America!" he said.

"Oh okay! This is Julian Albert and Rip Hunter!" James said

"Hey, how's it going?" Julian Albert said

"Wassup?" said Rip Hunter. He waved shortly at the group.

"Julian and Rip are both gonna come and watch our first basketball game on Friday!" James said excited for the season to start soon.

"Yeah, our soccer coach is giving the day off to come watch," Rip said with a smile.

"Hopefully we show you guys a win, aye?" Jax said elbowing Wally. He laughed, Wally was grateful there were more people in this school he knew.

"Hey guys," Sara Lance came over to talk to Iris. They were close friends even though Sara usually sat with her friend Nyssa. She also came over to meet the new students.

"Oh hey, Sara! This is Rip and Julian," Iris introduced them, and they said hello again. "Oh and this is Wally! My little brother! I can't believe you two haven't met!" she added

"Hey," Wally said somewhat subtly. Then, He looked at Sara in a way he hadn't before in a way that realizing how beautiful this woman is. Wally caught himself staring and tried to smile and hope nobody noticed. Suddenly he wasn't missing Keystone so much.

…

"YOU ARE ALL WEAK! YOU WILL GET EATEN BY WOLVES AND DIE!" Mr. Al Ghul yelled as his students as they ran. Barry was jogging. He figured an 8-minute mile was slow enough to not draw attention to himself. As everyone finished their mile, they panted for air and wiped the sweat off their faces. Barry wasn't tired at all. Little does know, he wasn't the only person avoiding drawing attention to themselves.

"Why do I have to do this again?" Oliver asked Mr. Al Ghul. "I play baseball I'm supposed to be exempt from P.E," he complained.

"I know that Mr. Queen but you missed half the school year last year we need to make sure you are still up to the district's standards," Mr. Al Ghul explains.

"I know! I've been taking placements test for weeks!" Oliver argued "I just thought PE would be different, I mean," Oliver flexed his muscles. Just then he saw Felicity run by. Oliver hated having to act like a cocky idiot. But he didn't know why he cared so much that Felicity saw him that way. She ran by her ponytail bobbing behind her, her arms thrusting through the air.

"Mr. Queen?" Mr. Al Ghul asked

"Yeah," he said still a little distracted

"Start with running the mile," Mr. Al Ghul ordered. Oliver passed his fitness test with ease. Even before the island, he was fit, now he was just ripped. Every time he would see Felicity he could sense a slight distaste towards him. It made his chest hurt.

…

"Hey, guys what's up?" Ray asked as he walked into ethical hackers club.

"RAY!" Felicity, Winn, and Cisco greeted him in unison. Ray Palmer was basically a genius. He was only 16, but he started MIT this year. He was close friends with everyone in ethical hacking club from when he went to high school. As much as he loved MIT, he felt good being home with people his age.

"It's so good to see you!" Ray hugged all of his old friends."Still hacking ethically." he used air quotes around ethically.

"As far as the school is concerned… yes." Felicity joked. The entire ethical hacking club felt full now that Ray was back. All of them were smiling fully.

"Hey, Winn you forgot your binder..." Jesse walked in. "Oh hey you must be Ray," Ray flashed a smile at Jesse and she immediately noticed his dark hair and his strong build, not very common for a computer nerd.

"Hello!" he used such a welcoming tone. Winn had told Jesse was he in college but he hardly looked the age.

"I'm Jesse!" she extended her arm and shook his hand. "Winn said you go to MIT? I want to go there hopefully!" she said making conversation.

"Well I go to MIT, but I'm only sixteen," Ray said. "MIT is great I absolutely love it there!"

"I actually am trying to go to college after my sophomore year too!" Jesse was relieved to hear Ray's age, and even more so to find out that they were so similar. They were both geniuses.

"That's super cool! I've never met anyone else like me!" he laughed. They stood awkwardly for a second.

"Oh… Winn! I have your binder!" she remembered what was in her hands. The others had been talking amongst themselves.

"Oh, your the best Jesse!" Winn grabbed the binder from her.

"Alright, I'll go now then…" Jesse started to turn to the door.

"No! You should stay!" Ray piped in. "We aren't going to do much, you should stay!" Jesse's face lit up at his comment.

"Okay! If you don't mind," she replied, trying to analyze what Ray had said to her. She talked to him almost the whole time. Everything he told her only made her want to get to know him more. She felt so natural talking to him, but every now and then she would remind herself that he is in college and that she was a freshman.

…

Iris was sitting in the stands of the basketball practice with her friends Lucy Lane and Sara Lance. They were doing homework and talking.

"So how's it going with Eddie?" Lucy asked

"You guys are making way too big a deal out of this," Iris insisted. Just then Eddie walked over during a water break.

"Hey Iris!" he said "How's it going?" it was clear he was turning on his smooth moves. Before Iris could answer a booming yell echoed in the gym.

"Thawne stop talking to your girlfriend!" Diggle yelled. Eddie looked a little scared and ran back over. Jax and Wally were laughing as hard as they could. As the team went back to practicing Sara noticed something.

"Wow, Iris your brother's really good," Sara said.

"You think?" Iris asked.

"Yeah…" Sara said.