Well thanks to the one and only reviewer, RaiderTKD, and the following song is by My Chemical Romance called "I'm Not Okay (I Promise), and for you information
"speech"
'Thought'
CHAPTER TWO
Well if you wanted honesty,
That's all you had to say,
I never want to let you down
Or have you go its better off this way.
For all the dirty looks,
For photographs you boyfriend took,
Remember when you broke your foot
From jumping out the second floor
I'm not okay
I'm not okay
I'm not okay
Raven quickly turned down the volume when she heard a knock on the door. Turning around to see who it was, she came face to face with her aunt.
Raven's family was complicated; suffice to say that her aunt was not really thrilled to have to feed another mouth. This was her uncle's second wife; the first had died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Kori was the second wife's daughter from a previous marriage or love affair depending on how you looked at it.
Her aunt sneered at her and just said,
"We're going over to the Wayne's for dinner, so please try not to look too shabby, otherwise people will start talking." and after saying so she stalked out of the room.
Raven just sighed and continued with Richard's part of the project. She was feeling slightly better than she had been yesterday, in fact all of her barriers had been put into place and after a bit of meditation to clear her mind she would probably be back to her normal self in a few hours. Taking a deep breath she played the music again and went back to work.
A few hours later
Dinner at the Wayne's was a serious matter, in fact one could probably consider it a royal gala. All the women were dressed in their finest and their throats were adorned with the most expensive of jewels, and the men were looking their smartest wearing their tuxedos.
The reason for the dinner was to celebrate their son's transition from the eleventh grade to the twelfth grade. Mrs. Wayne liked to theme her dinners so this unfortunately was themed, 'The Masquerade'.
Kori looked marvelous in her strapless butter yellow gown that swept the floor. Her hair had been pinned up for the special occasion and it also contained a sort of tiara. For her mask she had adapted a sheer material to cover her face like a veil.
Her aunt was wearing a form fitting bright red dress that reached about above the knee with slits till mid thigh that just screamed, "Look at me!" She was covered in diamonds that one could hardly see her face amidst all the sparkle. Her mask was just a sheer scarf wrapped around her mouth. Hardly an appropriate out fit for someone her age but that was Katrina for you.
Her uncle, who looked a bit worn out was the only one apart from her, who had not bothered to dress up as much as the others. He was looking smart in a black tux and was wearing a simple black domino mask. He just smiled at her and entered with his wife.
Richard soon came out and looked dazzling in a pair of simple black dress pants and a mellow yellow shirt ( rhyme) and what looked like a black cape. He matched Kori perfectly and they looked lovely together. When Richard bent down, Raven quickly averted her eyes, to give them some privacy and also to prevent another piece of her heart from being chipped off.
"Sickening isn't it?"
Raven turned around to see a girl around her age staring at Richard and Kori. She stood out mainly because of her pink hair which fell in waves around her face. She was wearing black halter dress that reached about her knees with a pink sash; her mask was a typical masquerade mask in pink and black.
She turned to Raven and held out her hand,
"I'm Jinx by the way, what about you?"
Intrigued by the similarities between the two Raven clasped her hand and gave it a firm shake.
"Raven."
She just smiled and extended her arm,
"Shall we?"
Looking back Raven saw Richard and Kori whispering, not even acknowledging her absence. She turned around and looked at the new girl, Jinx.
"We shall."
So together hand in hand they entered the ball.
The ball was magnificent, as was all of Mrs. Wayne's events. The music was good and everyone and everything was so elegant. Turning around, Raven spotted Mrs. Wayne making her way over to them.
Mrs. Wayne was an extremely nice lady, she was sweet, thoughtful and caring. She always made it a point to talk to Raven whenever she saw her and always made it a point to help in any way possible.
"Raven! It's so good to see you, how have you been?"
Raven smiled, if one could call it a smile, it was just an action of lifting the corner of her mouth ever so slightly.
"I'm fine Mrs. Wayne, the ball is magnificent. Is there any way I can help?"
She just waved her offer away.
"Oh, nonsense, you're not hired help are you? Don't worry about it, enjoy instead, find someone to dance with."
When she caught sight of Jinx she squealed, quite a feat for a woman her age, yet still quite well managed.
"Jacqueline! My dear how have you been? How are you parents? Did you enjoy your stay at the Blood Academy?"
After getting all that out in one breath, she hugged 'Jacqueline', making her look a bit uncomfortable.
"Hello aunt Diana, I'm fine and so are the folks, and the Blood academy was okay, nothing great suffice to say."
"Good to know Jacqueline, oh and I see you and Raven have already met, take care of her will you? She has an affinity for corners, and please tell your mother that I want to see her, we desperately need some sisterly bonding time. Take care girls."
After saying so she left in twirl of fabric. Turning to Jacqueline Raven raised her eye brow and asked.
"Jacqueline?"
Jacqueline just scowled at her and said
"I hate that name, so I changed it, I swear it should be illegal for my mother to be allowed to name any baby. She chooses the most awful names."
When Raven just raised her brow further, Jinx just sighed;
"You're not much of a talker are you?"
"Why speak if you have nothing meaningful to say?"
Jinx just grinned again
"Oh really? And who is to judge weather what you say is meaningless or not?"
"Me of course."
As the new voice entered the conversation, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around Jinx's waist and a pair of lips found their way to hers.
Jinx just grinned up at her long-time boyfriend Wally West before introducing him to Raven.
"Oh hey, I know you. You're that girl who always does Richard's homework. Shit man, how do you manage to do all that work at still maintain a B average?"
Raven just stared at him emotionlessly until slightly unnerved Wally asked Jinx to dance.
"Hey I'll be right back, so you don't mind do you?"
"Go ahead, don't worry about me, have fun be merry and get drunk, isn't that the motto for kids our age?"
Jinx just grinned at the dry humor and started waltzing with Wally.
Sighing Raven tried to meditate, to clear her mind and not think of anything, and slowly the music was tuned out, the lights got dimmer, until it was just Raven within her mind, just as she wanted it to be.
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Change point of view
This was boring.
I didn't even know why I was here, except for the fact that it is my cousin's stupid 'passing eleventh grade' gala and my mother adamantly refused to let me miss it insisting that Aunt Diana would feel bad if I did so.
Honestly I don't think Aunt Diana even noticed my presence let alone give a dam about it. Now don't get me wrong, Aunt Diana is an absolutely wonderful lady, but when I have to compete for her attentions with the oh so wonderful Richard, how can I not lose.
Diana is not my real aunt, just a really good friend of my mother's and because of this Richard and I grew up side by side and as we grew older, we grew into becoming rivals as well.
I was always compared to Richard in every aspect of life, weather it was girls, academics or sports. It was always, Richard can do it why can't you? In the back of my brain where secrets are often hidden I do acknowledge that maybe they only did it to help push me further and help me reach my true potential. However they oftentimes took it beyond the limits and so I strove to always be better than Richard, who could never stand anyone being better than him. So as you can imagine it became a race for the two of us, to see who could be better, a never ending race, until we took it too far. As usual everyone took Richard's side and I was sent away to boarding school, which honestly was the best thing that could have ever happened to me and yet here I am now, back in this God forsaken place, back to complete my senior year in the school where it all began, but hey, at least I had friends this time.
Out of habit I scanned the room again curious as to whom Richard was friends with, and also wondering who from the lot were actually his friends. As expected there were many of the guys from the football team as well as girls from the cheerleading squad. In fact most of the people who were present were probably all active in at least one school sports team. Not at all surprised I took to looking at the adults who had tired out and were now resting their feet when suddenly I spotted the girl I had bumped into at school the other day. She was kind of difficult to forget with that purple hair and purple eyes.
From where I stood it almost looked as if she was sleeping, but closer inspection revealed that she was only meditating. I took the opportunity to look her over. She was of an average build, maybe a bit of extra tummy but otherwise perfectly normal.
She was garbed in an inconspicuous black dress that reached her calves. Her mask was a similar version of mine except a tad bit more feminine. Looking around I wondered about her lack of dance partners when I was greeted by the familiar sight of Richard with that whore of a girlfriend Kori.
How Richard failed to see through this conniving little with was beyond me, because after all he was a fairly good judge of character, but what can we do. I guess love blinds even the most brilliant of us.
I turned to look at the girl again, when I found her staring at Richard and Kori dance emotionlessly. Her face was a perfect imitation of a marble mask, only her eyes gave away what she was feeling, and it was akin to heart break and anger. Taking pity on her I walked towards her and stopped right in front of her, waiting for her to acknowledge me. When she became aware of my presence she looked up at me wondering what I wanted. I just extended my hand and said
"May I have this dance?"
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Change Point of View (RAVEN)
After trying unsuccessfully to meditate, I gave up and took to staring at Richard and Kori, fantasizing about something that I could never ever have.
Angry at myself for being so weak, yet completely lacking the strength to not wallow in my self pity, I was surprised to find myself looking at a pair of shiny black dress shoes. Bringing my face up to look at the owner, I was surprised to see a hand extended in my direction.
"May I have this dance?"
Surprised I couldn't even react as he grasped my hand and pulled me towards the dance floor. Only when he put his hands on my waist was I able to find my voice
"I didn't say yes you know."
A felt his chest rumble with a chuckle as the closeness of our bodies finally began to hit me. I brought my hands up to his chest and tried to push him away but that only made him tighten his grip on me and I gave up trying and just wound my arms around his neck, highly uncomfortable but unable to do anything about it.
We moved to the gentle beat for a while, a typical slow dance, swaying from side to side and I took this opportunity to observe him. His hair was a shocking shade of silver with subtle red tips; it fell around his face in a slightly messy manner, with bangs slightly obscuring his brilliantly blue eyes. The top of his face was covered by a black masquerade mask that had the shape of a red X on it, almost like mine, except that mine was a dark blue mask with a jet black raven on it. He was wearing a blood red shit that had the first few buttons unbuttoned, and it fell un-tucked and slightly messily over his black trousers.
He smelt wonderful, slightly musky with a hint of fresh pine. I breathed the smell in wanting to memorize it when I suddenly realized that my face had somehow ended up in the crook of his neck.
When I instantly yanked my head back and away from his neck, he just chuckled.
"Like the smell beautiful?"
Gathering my bearings was able to able to answer in a slightly dignified manner.
"You've had your dance, could you please let go of me now?"
He just gave me an infuriating smirk and said,
"Nah, I think I want another, since that didn't really qualify as a dance."
I just barely managed to restrain myself from whacking his head and settled for a glare instead. Still smirking he held me tight while he led me in a waltz.
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"Oh look Katrina, Zachary and Raven seem to have found one another."
Turning around Katrina was greeted by the sight of slightly wiry boy and Raven waltzing across the dance floor. Revolted by the sight of the annoying fourth mouth she had to feed, Katrina tried to change the topic.
"So Diana, don't you think that Kori and Richard are the most brilliant couple? Do you think that Richard will propose before or after their graduation?"
"I have no idea Katrina, Richard has a mind of his own at times I hardly know what he even thinks, and I'm his mother." She laughed, "However I do realize that he is smitten with her, but as I always say, time will tell."
"Oh but Diana wouldn't it be wonderful if they got married as soon as possible? We would be related and they would have the most grand of weddings. Oh Diana you must persuade Richard to take action immediately, after we do want an heir for this fortune do we not?"
Diana just smiled and continued to look at Raven, wondering if the girl was actually having fun and while doing so she completely drowned out Katrina's incessant babbling. Diana honestly wasn't the type of person to hate anyone, but Katrina was the only one who was an almost exception to that. She was jolted out of her line of thought when suddenly Katrina gave an awesomely fake squeal.
"Oh darling Richard, are you having fun? Your mother and I were just talking about you and Kori, oh and by the way where is she?"
Richard just smiled indulgently
"Yes Mrs. Tameran, it has been a wonderful evening, and Kori has just gone to freshen up."
"Oh Richard are the toasts starting anytime soon?"
"Yes mother they will begin shortly and thank you for everything."
Diana just smiled and continued watching Raven. Following her line of sight, Richard was extremely shocked by what he saw; there on the dance floor was Raven in Zack's arms, dancing. Hell the fact that Raven was even bothering to dance was amazing enough.
However as the feelings of shock began to ebb away, Richard was overwhelmed with another kind of feeling, a feeling he could not name. Annoyed without reason he marched over to Raven and rudely interrupted them.
"Hey Raven, glad you could make it. Are you enjoying yourself?"
Raven was just as emotionless in her reply as ever.
"Yes Richard dancing is tremendous fun, why didn't you tell me that before." Her happy statement was however coated in sarcasm and beside her Zack chuckled.
Still slightly annoyed Richard blurted out the first thing that he could think of at that point.
"Dance with me."
Skeptical Raven just raised her brow silently questioning his motives for asking her to dance. He just cleared his throat and held out his hand praying that she wouldn't turn him down.
She was interrupted when Zack kissed her cheek and said,
"Thanks for the dance sweets, I never actually got your name but it was fun, we should do it again sometime. So I guess I'll be seeing you around."
Raven just nodded and gave her hand to Richard who was still a tad bit awestruck by what had just happened. Slowly he brought Raven into his arms and hesitantly placed his hands on her waist as he felt her slowly rest her hands on his shoulders. More than slightly awkward they did the best they could to have minimal contact which made them look like a pair of three year olds dancing, luckily for them the dance lasted only for a few seconds before Kori came up on stage to make her grand speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the Wayne's grand gala for their son Richard!"
Cue applause.
"We have gathered here today to honor the achievements of Richard as well as to congratulate him and wish him best of luck in his senior year. We will start the speeches with the one and only Mr. Wayne."
Bruce walked on stage looking not a day over thirty in his white trousers and black silk shirt. The way he looked right now you might have thought that he and Richard were actually biologically related.
"Diana and I always wanted children. We dreamt of it since the day we got married, yet we never actually found the time, what with our busy schedules and everything else. So we decided to adopt. We were in the process of choosing children when I was invited to a carnival to watch the amazing flying Graysons. The rumors were correct. They were amazing, all of them. Even little Richard, however that night, call it fate or bad luck, something went wrong. As Mr. and Mrs. Grayson got ready to help little Richard up for the final act, the rope snapped and they plummeted to the ground. That was the night that I decided then and there and Richard was the boy that we needed to complete the family and till this day, he has done everything to make us proud. To Richard!"
"TO RICHARD!"
Next up was his mother.
"Richard has been the pride and joy of my life. He gave me purpose after I lost it and he was the one that helped me through all the times that I felt lonely or I fought with Bruce," the crowd chuckled, "but most of all he taught us how to be human. Before Richard, Bruce and I were zombies. Machines that only knew how to go to office and concentrate on making money, monsters that had lost touch with the human race and the world."
"When Richard first became a part of our lives, it was difficult. The idea of something, someone that we needed to take care of shocked us and for the first time in years united us as well. As much as I hate to say this, Richard saved our marriage. He was the one who taught us how to feel, towards one another and eventually towards the world. He has made us who we are today and for that thanks. To Richard."
"To Richard."
The speeches that followed are not worth mentioning so let's skip ahead to the most important one of all. Kori's.
"Ahem" cue smile, "Richard and I first met in 3rd grade and at that time he was anything but charming. In fact he ran around trying to stuff insects down my dress. He loved tormenting me in any way he could imagine. Pulling my hair, eating my lunch and kissing my cheek as many times as he could manage, I guess I should have realized from then on that he was a keeper. We grew up together but I suppose the first time we started looking at each other differently was at the beginning of sixth grade. Cooties no longer existed and he was looking way better than I could remember. In seventh grade, he asked me out and from then on we have been who we are today. I don't know what much to say except, thanks. Thanks for showing me my worth and thanks for helping me be who I am today. To Richard!"
"To Richard!"
The applause was so loud that it could have awakened the whole neighborhood. Glad that it was over and done with, Raven went to get some air on the balcony.
Taking a deep breath she was surprised to smell smoke in the air. Looking around she saw the guy from before lounging on the railing against the wall with a cigarette dangling from his fingertips. He still looked breathlessly handsome with the moonlight illuminating his silhouette and his silver locks dancing in the breeze.
Unwilling to disturb him she turned quietly to leave when his voice stopped her.
"You don't have to leave you know? Being in the company of a beautiful woman such as yourself is vastly encouraging for my self esteem."
Turning around she saw that he has abandoned his perch on the railing and instead was now lounging against it watching her with amused eyes.
"Flattery is not going to get you anywhere, and I didn't think that anything else could be added to your already gigantic ego."
He dramatically put his hand above his heart and pretended to swoon, (drama queen),
"Oh you wound me." That infuriating smirk was back in place. "Am I that transparent?"
"And here I thought the balcony was a place for peace and quite."
"So did I but then you came along and changed my opinion." A drag from that annoying cigarette, "Enlighten me, does a storm cloud follow you everywhere you go? Because I think that may be a problem if you ever want to use a library, what with all the sound of thunder and all."
She turned and tried to hide the glare from him and ah, success, he managed to make her show an emotion. That is if you could call annoyance an emotion.
"Oh and I suppose you make it a point to suffocate all females you encounter with cheesy pick up lines, cheesy nick names and let's not forget, the ego with an area code."
"Woa, feisty I see, but nothing I can't handle. After all I do like my women a tad bit rough." He winked.
Annoyed beyond the legal limitations, she turned to walk away when suddenly he grabbed her and turned her around. Cue charming smile.
"I'm Zack by the way, what about you?"
"I am annoyed beyond comprehension by an infuriating cretin who has an ego the size of Asia."
"Well charmed annoyed-beyond-comprehension-by-an-infuriating-cretin-who-has-an-ego-the-size-of-Asia." And he even had the audacity to hold out his hand.
Definitely at the end of her tether, Raven tried to yank her hand out of his grasp only to find that sometimes, males are indeed stronger than females. However never one to give up she tugged at her hand and right when she gave the mightiest tug of her life, he let go and she fell unceremoniously on her behind. Chuckling, he offered a hand to help her up, but always the independent one, she swatted it away. Amused he watched as she dusted herself off and turned to walk away, only to realize that she was headed in the wrong direction. Still glaring at him, she hardly noticed when her aunt entered the scene.
"Raven, say good-bye to your friend now, we must be leaving. Kori is spending the night so do let's make a move on." Smiling curtly at Zack, she left.
"Well, Zack as fun as this was, I must leave so good bye." Hoping to walk out with any ounce of dignity she had left, she was disappointed when Zack yet again grabbed her arm and scrawled a number on it. From where he got a pen, is still a mystery. He kissed my hand and let me go.
"Call me sweets, I'll be waiting."
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Raven's POV
When we reached home, I quickly took a shower and got ready for bed. Now lying on my queen bed I stared up at the ceiling wondering why on earth I had noted down the number he gave me in my date planner.
'I mean he was the most annoying person he had met in my whole lifetime and he could rile me up with the snap of his fingers. He was rude, arrogant and a smoker, everything I detest. The fact that Richard smoked didn't help either. But still I mean what was up with this guy.'
'First he asks me to dance. Then he actually pays attention to me and now he's given me his number? I mean what does he expect me to do? Call him?'
'Not possible. I mean firstly he's gorgeous enough to get any girl to fall head over heels for him so why on earth would he want me?'
'And secondly he keeps insulting me, now that is the mark of true hatred.' I let a rare smile touch my lips, 'but it did feel nice to paid attention to once in a while. To be treated as if you actually existed, I mean I didn't get a lot of that these days.'
Yet no matter how hard I try I can't get over the fact that Richard asked me to dance. I mean what was he thinking? Was he completely off his rocker or what? If Kori had seen us, I would be dead. D-E-A-D.
But hey I'm not complaining, I mean once in a while, I should be allowed to live too right?
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Change POV
It was good to be back home again. Don't get me wrong, I loved my boarding school, but sometimes, well actually most of the time, there's no place like home.
Smiling contently I discarded my towel and put on a fresh pair of red pin striped boxers. I got into my bed and waited for sleep to overcome me, but after waiting for a while, my thoughts drifted to today.
First I met that girl at school when I went to pick up my schedule. Next I meet her at a grand gala that it seemed both of us did not want to attend, and for an inexplicable reason I wrote my number on her hand. I mean come on man. I was Zack. I never gave my number to anyone. And there I went today, giving my number away without a single second thought. Now that is what I call truly crazy.
Yet still, I didn't regret it. Something about that girl was special. And it wasn't the fact that she could hold her own in a verbal joust with me, but it was also because of how cute she looked when she was annoyed with me. Something about her aura just exuded difference, this girl was special and I would be dammed if I let her pass through my fingers without having her scream my name at least once. Smirking I finally drifted off to land where anything is possible.