I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

Learning Can Be Fun

I've had girlfriends before, but none like Angela. Sara was great if you wanted to party and relax, and Annie was great if you wanted to act like a little kid again. Angela was all of that combined, plus some. If we had met in my world under different circumstances, I doubt we would bonded like we did. Except we both had something in common: annoying Gardner. Me, because of how jerky he had been, and her because she found it amusing. When I later asked Gardner why he hung out with her, he said it was because she was a lot of fun when she wasn't messing with you, and it was better to have her on your side than against. Which I find myself easily agreeing with.

I hadn't even been out of the shower for very long before she bounced me for more info. "So what's your story really? Did Gardner knock you up and your parents kick you out? You don't seem like his type, but I suppose if you were drunk at the time..."

"What's wrong with my story exactly?" I asked curious.

"Because Gardner thinks all girls are 'manipulative bitches' and for him to want to help you, he must of screwed up big time."

That made sense. I would be suspicious of my story too, honestly. "Well, I could tell you the truth, but it's going to sound crazy."

"Please," she said dismissing me, "I've dated crazy, seen crazy and according to some am crazy. Now spill." She sat Indian-style on her bed and hugged her pillow to her chest, eager to hear whatever crazy story I had in store.

When I was done telling her I expected her to mock me, or laugh like Gardner did. She didn't; instead she looked at me with awe on her face. "If Gardner is screwing with me, I'll kill him, but if what you say is true..." she got up and unlocked the bottom drawer in her desk. After shuffling through some binders, she pulled out a big green one that you put CDs in, and started to unzip it.

"Despite all the crap I give him, Gardner really is a great friend. He could have gotten me back so many times, but he just takes it, says I remind him of his little sister. What I'm about to show you is just between us, if you tell anybody, I will kill you, and I'm not joking." For some reason, I could tell she was serious.

Continuing, she said, "On move-in day, after the whole, 'you're not a girl' settled down, Gardner was kind enough to help me and my parents to unpack while his mom went to go yell at housing. He saw the contents of this binder and instead of making fun of me, asked who I thought the better Batman was."

"Why would he make fun of you?"

"Look at me. How many hot blondes do you know, that are also comic book fans?"

More than she knew. Annie, for one, though she was more of a fan of the League, than comics. There were a couple others, but they were still few. I guess I got her point though. It'd be like Eugene ever telling people I was still a Pokemon fan. (On the subject of embarrassing things, if anybody in this room repeats that, I'll deny it. And if this conversation is being recorded I want those parts skipped over like Nixon's).

So Angela spread open the binder on her bed and let me flip through it. From what I could tell it contained just about every series I had read about previously that day in the computer lab, including mine.

"Mind if we watch some of these?" I asked, fingering some of them.

"Sure," she smiled. "My roommate is always at the library studying, or a friend's house. She once made the mistake of borrowing my sweater without asking and she's been afraid of me ever since."

I bought that. Like I said, Angela gave off this fun girl vibe, but she also had this, 'mess with me and I'll knife you in your sleep' vibe too. She was either going to be the next president of the United States, or the next big time serial killer. And for some reason, I was completely cool with both possibilities.

We spent the rest of night going through her binder watching stuff. I could barely get through one episode of the old school Batman show, let alone the Superfriends show. The bad guys wore Henchmen shirts, and the plots were laughable. The Joker would be embarrassed at his counter part, though he might be impressed by the Heath Ledger guy. And what was up with all the 'BANG' 'POW' stuff? And all the labeling? Seriously Batman, if you could sue for libel or slander against these people, I would. They make you look like a fruitcake. Though, the Justice League Unlimited show was better. I particularly enjoyed the 'This Little Piggy' episode.

(Batman didn't seem to find any of this funny, while Waller looked at him as if she was seeing him in a new light, and was trying to fight back laughter. Gardner was just sitting there chuckling to himself as he got all my references. Eventually Batman insisted that I continue and skip the rest of what I saw.)

The next day, Friday, Angela left for class and left me to continue going through her binder of DVD's with the stern warning, 'scratch one, and you're done'. I don't know if she meant done with watching them, or done with life, but I still took extra care with them, not eager to find out.

When she came back at lunch she brought me a turkey sandwich from the cafeteria. "So what are you doing for break?"

"Break?" I asked, my mouth full of food.

"You know, Thanksgiving break, where we're all booted from the dorms to supposedly go home to our families."

How had I forgotten Thanksgiving break? I had been looking forward to it for weeks, but with everything going on it slipped my mind that it would happen here as well. Wait. If it was happening here, then it was happening back home, and my mom would freak if I wasn't home for Thanksgiving if she wasn't already freaking out. She would call in the army and national guard, and if Eugene thought he had just Gary to worry about, he was dead wrong.

My mom was usually all nice and sweet, even if she was interrogating you. This was the case unless one of her children was being threatened. In that instance she would act like a mama bear, attacking anyone who approached her cubs, or at least that's how my dad put it. It'd take everything the League had to keep her from storming the WatchTower (and I'm honestly surprised she didn't), demanding where her daughter was, and wanting to know what they were going to do about it. I hoped Gary would grab footage if that was case. Surely the League had to have cameras on the WatchTower recording everything, especially since the Stuart incident.

The thought of my mom and family hit a nerve though. Up to then, I hadn't thought much about them, assuming I wouldn't be gone long enough for them to miss me. But if Batman was having trouble reaching this world just for a second, I might be gone for longer than I thought.

Angela seemed to have picked up on the whole nerve thing, because she said, "Sorry, it's just housing won't let you stay here, and I'm mild compared to the rest of my family."

"She's right," said a voice from the door that belonged to Gardner. "She's the sane one of the group and that's saying something."

Angela stuck out her tongue at him. "Guess what Gardner? Your mom is going to be very thankful this Thanksgiving."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Because this year you're going to bring a girl home." Seeing the look of confusion mixed with horror on his face she continued, "What else are you going to do with Suzy, she has no place else to go over break. And if you even think about shoving her off on somebody else, I'll tell Suzy about the lake incident."

"Lake incident?" That sounded promising.

Whatever it was, I wasn't about to find out anytime soon. "Fine," agreed Gardner, rather grudgingly I noted. "You promised not to say a word though."

"And I'll keep my promise as long as you promise to watch after Suzy. She's my newest friend after all," said Angela as she wrapped an arm around me.

For some reason, that sounded like something Annie would do. Annie. It was odd, but I missed her too. She had calmed down in the past year, but she still could be a bit naive or blonde at times. But I was also suddenly understanding just how strong of a person she really was. She had entered a strange world thinking she knew everything, when she didn't, not having anything to call her own or knowing anybody. But she had survived and adapted, and even thrived in that world.

And here I was in the same situation. In a world that was similar to my own, but different. Here people only flew in airplanes, being dropped into a radioactive batch of something would kill you, villains could win, and the only alien life that had been discovered were microorganisms. I knew nobody, had nothing but my clothes really, and was dependent on others. It could be worse, but it still sucked, and it took a lot of concentration not to sit around moping. Perhaps that's why I was so hard on Gardner, he was my comic relief in a world that didn't have Annie. I made a mental note if I ever got back to my world, to let her know that I never appreciated just how much she had to put up with during her days as a Sue.

As I got into Gardner's car, I couldn't help but wonder if it was a universal thing for guys to be pigs. His car was just as cluttered with junk and trash as Gary's was, and he didn't even seem to care. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the look of disgust on my face as I threw the junk that was up front to the back and sat down.

Before I left, Angela threatened Gardner one last time and gave me a change of clothes and some other essentials. Gardner didn't say much, just that he lived about two hours away. In fact, most of the car ride passed in silence, with the radio playing and the occasional news blurb about some government break-in. Until Gardner asked, "Did your roommate really destroy your car because she thought it was ugly?"

"Well, she was a Sue at the time, and figured it would be better to land on my car since it was in horrible shape rather than the 'cute bug' next to it."

"A Sue?"

Really, he didn't know what a Sue was? "You know, Sue, Mary-Sue. Obnoxiously perfect original character created by thirteen year-old girls as a blatant self insert. She's been deSued for about a year now, and goes by the name of Annie. But her first name was such a Sue name. Marianna Aurora Rhea Yew Sapphire-"

"Utopia Earthchild?" finished Gardner for me.

"How did you know that?" I asked, suddenly wary. I mean, what was the chance that a guy would know Annie's full name?

"Because I know her author," he said slowly, "and she's not thirteen, she's eleven."

**Author's Note**

I would like to thank Jana Girl123, AwkwardedOut, Fox Alder, and Loki's Son for reviewing. Reviews are always nice to receive.

Next chapter you'll finally get to meet Annie's author.

Thanks for reading, and if ou can leave a review.