After a few moments, Jinx finally regained her composure and flipped open a small compact. She examined herself in its tiny mirror, noting what Kid Flash had said earlier about her hair. The witch fluffed one of her cotton candy pigtails. It was true that they brought too much unneeded attention, something she couldn't afford if she was going to prove herself to the Titans. She gave a doleful sigh and slid off her two black bands.

Her hair still stood in place.

Jinx grumbled and pulled out a brush from God-knows-where. With a growl, she attacked her hair with the comb vehemently in a furious rage. Within seconds, her hair was straightened. Her pink locks now passed a little below her shoulders. For the finishing preppy touch, she transformed one of her black silk bands into a headband.

She examined her finished work in the mirror. It would have to do, she didn't come prepared with anything else. Sure, she took Espionage 101 back when she was enrolled at the H.I.V.E. Academy, but she never specialized in any classes dealing with camouflage or disguise. Jinx was always too proud to have someone deter her fashion sense.

Realizing she was running out of time, the new student raced out from the alleyway and down to the gated high school. As she approached the steps, she couldn't help but look at the doors with utter disdain. Jinx was becoming very sick of school. 'For the third time,' she reminded herself bitterly.

"Jones? Jones, you're here. Slack? Ah, I see you. Wolfram?"

Before the student could answer, the only door to their small classroom slammed open. The final bell for tardiness rang shortly after. The woman at the front of the room blinked curiously at the new arrival.

Jinx stood panting a little in the doorway, but quickly calmed herself. Her little meeting with Kid Flash had cost her time, but she still made it before the bell. "Sorry I'm late," she said flatly.

The young blonde-haired lady merely smiled. She looked less like a teacher and more like an actress. "Oh, no need. You must be the new student, Jade! We've been expecting you. I'm Mrs. Strong. Please, have a seat right there," she said sweetly, motioning towards the only available seat in the room situated towards the front and right next to…

'Terra. Of course,' Jinx thought amusedly, 'Not bad, Boy Blunder.' At the same time, she was quite surprised at the extreme politeness of her new teacher. So far, this was nothing like the H.I.V.E., but she quietly scolded herself for comparing the two.

Jinx nodded and made her way towards the seat. The rest of the class stared at her with curiosity and some bewilderment. After all, "Jade" still didn't resemble most normal students. She could make out some snide whispers about "pink eyes" and whether or not she was a "punk or something." She scoffed at them, but noticed Terra giving her a similar look as she sat down.

"Well, we know Jade's here now," remarked Mrs. Strong as she checked off something on her clipboard. "As I was saying, Wolfram?" she yelled, continuing her roll call.

Jinx glanced sideways at her target. Terra could feel her gaze and returned the stare with a slightly annoyed expression.

Of course, normally Jinx would have listened attentively to the teacher speaking right in front of her and try to succeed at acing this school, but that was not the objective at hand. This wasn't the H.I.V.E., after all. If Jinx was going to get this over with, she needed to assimilate quickly.

She flashed a friendly, plastic smile. "Hi," the pink-haired student whispered.

Terra lifted an eyebrow. "Uh… hey," she returned uncomfortably. She tried to redirect her attention to the teacher in front.

"So, who--"

Terra, looking very annoyed, tilted her head in the direction of the teacher right in front of them. She then immediately turned away from her pink-haired companion.

Jinx's smile quickly faded and her chin fell disappointingly to her hand. This might take longer than she imagined. Unless… Maybe she could hex Terra into submission and make her remember? Nah… 'Remember, you're a Titan now,' Jinx reminded herself unfavorably.

Homeroom sped by more quickly than Jinx had anticipated, but she was somewhat disappointed about how very dull it all was. The teacher merely took roll, handed out some papers, and went over the school guidelines for the new semester. There was a severe lack of threats, bombs, and knives. Jinx quietly hoped the next courses would be better.

Almost immediately after, they shifted into their new class. For Jinx's first period, she had Geometry. Not surprisingly, Terra was also there. The cotton candy witch sat a few seats away from the ex-Titan and monitored her. For the most part, Terra seemed to be a very attentive student. Occasionally, however, she spoke lightly with a chubby brown-haired girl seated next to her. Well, her friend seemed to be the chatty one, but Terra did give her some friendly acknowledgements unlike what she practiced on Jinx. "Stupid hypocrite," the witch cursed under her breath.

The lanky male teacher at the front of the class slammed the chalkboard with a ruler. "Ashley! Stop running your mouth off with your friend there and pay attention," he yelled in annoyance. Ashley responded with a half-hearted apology, and the poor high school teacher grumbled on with his lesson. Unfortunately for Jinx, this class was also disappointing. Not to mention too easy. There wasn't a math problem that she couldn't apply to her previous education.

The bell clanged, and Jinx silently followed Terra out of the room. The blonde-haired geomancer walked beside Ashley as they chatted in the hallway. Jinx sighed, and glanced at her schedule. To her disappointment, there was no Gym. The only saving grace was a general Art class, but apart from that, all the other classes sounded resolutely boring.

The pink-haired student stood idly by a random locker, pretending to fiddle with the lock as she continued to monitor Terra and her valley girl acquaintance. A third friend joined the group, this time a girl with dark skin and a ponytail. Jinx began to head to a closer locker, but froze mid-step as a large, bulky male student also appeared beside the group. He looked like a stereotypical jock, and sported the school's colors on his varsity jacket. Jinx crept closer and watched attentively as he seemed to be conversing smugly with Terra. She was finally close enough to hear.

"Whaddya mean there's someone else?" he barked.

"She told you, she's NOT interested," retorted Ashley in defense for her friend. Albeit, she was standing a little behind Terra and seemed somewhat intimidated. The other girl was also standing idly by.

The jock grabbed Terra's wrist roughly. "Don't lie to me! I never see you with anyone else!"

Terra frowned and tried to pull her hand away. "Look, back off!" she yelled.

Jinx couldn't help but smile mischievously as she pressed against the lockers. 'Oh, this is too perfect,' she thought in excitement. For once, it looked like luck really was on her side.

Jinx ran gracefully up to the troubled couple, and roundhouse kicked the bully in the stomach. He was sent careening back a good ten feet, the wind clearly knocked out of him. Terra and her two friends watched the scene in shock as the jock laid sputtering on the ground. After a moment, he wearily hoisted himself up. Jinx stood posed with a hand on her hips, and smiled deviously. "Want some more?" she taunted. The boy looked at her in fear and, in an all too cartoon fashion, quickly ran off in the other direction screaming.

The pink-haired student gave a little "Yeah, didn't think so" nod at her fleeing victim and turned around to her shocked audience. "So," Jinx began, "Was that your school's best bully?"

"Chris? Y-yeah.." confirmed the pony-tailed girl.

Jinx gave a disappointed look. "Too bad."

Terra finally spoke up. "You didn't have to do that, you know."

The witch returned with a plastic smile. "It's no big deal," Jinx bragged. "As I tried to say before, I'm Jade. And you?"

The chubby brown-haired girl grinned. "I'm Ashley! And by the way, those were totally killer moves! You've, like, GOT to teach me them!"

The dark-skinned girl with the ponytail returned with a favorable expression. "Tasha. And yeah, it was really cool what you did back there."

The three of them waited for the blonde-haired girl to speak up, which she finally conceded to. "My name's Tara. It's nice to meet you," she said flatly. Jinx couldn't help but wonder if all of her careless, direct contact had made Terra suspicious. She thought about it in dread.

Ashley shuffled up to Jinx in a closer proximity than she cared for. "So, like," she continued, "be honest. Kung Fu or Taekwondo?" She seemed to have transformed into Jinx's personal fan girl.

Tasha also shimmied up next to her. "No way! It was Savate, right?"

Jinx couldn't help but give a catty smile. "A little of those, but try gymnastics."

"What?"

"No way!"

The trio made their way down the hall to their next class, and they continued to chat. Terra tagged a little behind them.

"But, like, what's with your eyes?"

"Uh… They're contacts."

Author's Notes: An observant reader noted that some students might recognize Jinx because she stands out so much. That's a possibility. But the way I see it, if they're too dumb to recognize Terra, a girl who once took over the entire city, then they're probably not going to recognize Jinx.

A lot of the "codenames" for Terra, her two friends, and Jinx were inspired by some other fanfics. So it's not your imagination. Consider it my homage to the TT fan fiction community.