If yesterday had been bad, today was even worse. I couldn't sleep all night, and when morning finally came I had more energy than a squirrel on caffeine. I was currently running around in the kitchen, helping mom with whatever I could.

"What's got you so excited today, Ren?" mom asked.

I stopped running around for a second to answer her.

"I'm meeting up with a friend today when he gets out of school"

"Oh, that's wonderful! My baby is making friends!"

Oh god. I shouldn't have told her.

She asked a lot of questions about this 'mystery friend I'd never told her about'. It almost felt like an interrogation with the number of questions she came up with. Eventually, I got away by promising I'll tell her everything at dinner. Not looking forward to that.

We'd made omelettes for breakfast and I had, against mom's advice, brewed some coffee for me.

"Do you know when you get back?" mom asked.

"Not really. It really depends on what we're doing. It probably won't be too late though since they have school tomorrow" I replied.

"It's okay. Just call if you think you'll miss dinner"

"Will do" I replied.

~~~

I had gone into town early. It was only one in the afternoon, but I had decided to get some Wendy's again since i still had money from yesterday.

The restaurant was pretty empty, seeing as most people were in school or at work, so there wasn't a line.

I ordered 'to-go' and when I got my food I started heading to a nearby park.

The park was one of the livelier places in Gotham, and at least half the benches were occupied. I did find one near a crappy skatepark, where a few people were enjoying the unusually nice weather.

I made myself comfortable and started munching on my burger. I wasn't in any hurry since I wasn't meeting up with Wally until three. I watched the skaters do tricks and shit for a while when I suddenly saw a familiar face amongst the skaters.

"Jason!" I called.

A few people looked over towards me, including Jason, and I waved.

Jason said something to the others and came over to me.

"Hi, Robin!" he greeted, raising his hand for a fist bump.

I, of course, didn't leave him hanging.

"Fancy seeing you here," I said and offered Jason some fries.

"So, have you eaten today?" I asked.

Jason shook his head.

"You're eating all the fries then," decided, leaving no room for arguments.

Jason hesitantly took the fries and started eating.

"You're pretty good at skating, by the way," I said to change the topic.

Jason looked up from his fries.

"Thanks! I've been doing it for almost two years now"

There was then silence while Jason ate his fries. Once he finished them he yeeted the container into a trashcan and wiped his hands on his jeans.

"Wanna try?" he asked, pointing at his skateboard.

"Yeah, sure"

I quickly finished my burger and we walked back to the skatepark.

The people Jason were talking to before were staring me down. It was actually a bit unnerving.

"Guys, this is Robin. He's cool, so don't kill him" Jason introduced me. When the others didn't move Jason shooed them away with his hand and they, a bit hesitantly went back to whatever they were doing.

"Have you ever skated before?" Jason asked.

I shook my head.

"But I have pretty good balance if that helps"

"Yeah, that's good," Jason said.

You'd think that years of gymnastics and dangerous stunts would make stepping on a skateboard seem like nothing, but honestly, I was feeling nervous when I carefully pushed myself forward. The board shifted, and I almost ran right into Jason. Thankfully, I realized to lean back a bit and turned away last second.

It didn't take long for me to get the hang of it and after about an hour I managed to get up and down a ramp without dying. Jason was impressed, to say the least. He told me it had taken him days to get to my level.

We basically spent the next hour taking turns and trying tricks. I fucked up on most of them, but Jason wasn't a dick about it, which was nice.

Soon it was time for me to meet Wally.

"I gotta go now, but this was awesome," I said.

"Well, I could give you a call sometime if you wanna do this again" Jason suggested.

"Yeah, dude! Whenever"

~~~

It was two minutes after three in the afternoon, and I was leaning on the gate of Gotham Academy. My bright pink hoodie stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of well-dressed students in their boring black uniforms. Wally wasn't here yet.

Someone broke free from the crowd and came and stood next to me. I glanced over, and lo and behold it was Artemis. She was tapping away on her phone, probably texting. She looked annoyed. A few seconds later she let out a frustrated sigh and pocketed her phone. She must've felt me staring because now she was suddenly staring right back. I decided to use the ultimate power move and just continued staring, making it extremely awkward for both of us.

After almost a whole minute Artemis finally broke and waved a hand in front of my face.

"What are you staring at, dipshit" she growled.

"You. Obviously" I replied.

She flipped me off. And me being me, I blew her a kiss.

She huffed and rolled her eyes.

"What're you doing here, anyway. I know you don't go here" Artemis demanded.

"I'm just waiting for my friend" I replied truthfully.

There was a tension between us growing more and more uncomfortable until I finally saw a familiar redhead, along with the rest of the team. I had to pretend I didn't know what he looked like though since I technically hadn't met him face to face yet. Artemis' face lit up though, and she waved. Wally waved back, but when he came up to us he completely forgot Artemis. He must've remembered I told him I would wear a pink hoodie.

"Robin?" he questioned.

"Sup, dude," I said.

Then I was crushed in a hug.

"Oh my god! It's so awesome to actually meet you" Wally squealed.

Yes. He actually squealed.

"I know, right! It's so weird to talk without a phone"

"Did we miss something?" a confused voice asked.

Well shit. I'd forgotten the rest of the team.

Wally let go of me and turned to the team.

"Guys, this is Robin. We met a couple of weeks ago online. And Robin, these are my friends Kaldur, Conner, Megan, and Artemis" Wally introduced us.

Artemis' jaw dropped.

"That little shit is the friend you've been talking about?" she exclaimed loudly, turning a few heads.

"Oh, name-calling. So mature" I retorted.

"Wally, your friend is weird" Artemis insisted.

Wally looked slightly offended.

"Maybe I know him a bit better than you do. And for your information, you're really easily irritated, so Robin probably didn't even do anything that bad".

Artemis just huffed and turned her back on us. She seemed to be a fucking delight to be around.

"Thanks for defending me" I thanked Wally.

"No problem. Artemis can be a real pain in the ass sometimes"

~~~

It had been a bit awkward at first, seeing as the team didn't know me, so I had mainly talked to Wally.

After about an hour of just chilling in the park, Megan suggested we go to a small cafe nearby where she apparently knew the owner.

When we got there a woman in her late 20's greeted Megan with a hug. The woman introduced herself as Ellen and sat us at a round table in the back of the cafe. I ended up between Wally and Conner.

Ellen soon came back with milkshakes and insisted they were on the house.

"So," Artemis said, " let's talk about you, Robin"

Well shit.