Lefty: I sho shorry I took sho long to update :(

May: Why are you speaking like that? …No, I don't want to know.

Lefty: I haven't turned on my laptop for so long and completely forgot. So, I'm starting anew with this chapter. Here are my replies to some of the reviews.

Guest: Yeah, I know how bad it can get when people try to take control of your story. I'm doing this for my own enjoyment. Reviews are welcome because they encourage me to update more frequently.

A-Bookworm-Named-Steph: The girl that bumped into Wally COULD be Jinx. ;) You'll see~

Randommonkeyz998: Thank you

Apocalypse Owner: Thanks, love your name, by the way

Sarcasm Intended: To be honest, I'm surprised they're not considered similar. After all, they both have jacked up family backgrounds.

Purpleraven23: I'm not telling anyone. I like keeping people on the edge of their seats ;)

Angel-Wings Naya: I'm leaving the pairing guessing to you all. Only Kitsura E. and 5stareader know who they are, and they aren't telling ;) Oh and Artemis and Raven are my fave characters as well :D

Now then…

On with the story!


Period 1

Room 336: Mr. James Tran

The sound of backpacks thumping onto the ground and footsteps across the tiles can be heard in room 336 as Wally and Artemis stride into their Vietnamese 2P class. Artemis immediately walks to the back, away from most of the students as Wally follows, ready to protect her from any challengers. His grass-green eyes dart around, seeing if there is anyone else he knows. Artemis settles into a seat in the corner of the classroom and Wally drops his body onto the chair next to her. He swings his black Jansport backpack down with a 'thump' as he places his two Viet books and a notebook on his desk. Artemis does the same as a girl with waist-length brown hair with pink highlights slides into the seat in front of Artemis. She places her small, purple bag at her side and pulls out a sketchbook, instantly sketching out a face.

Wally gulps; this is the girl he had bumped into earlier. Artemis notices the slight change in Wally and instantly begins to wonder about the girl. She taps the girl's shoulder. If Wally won't tell her who it is, then she's just going to have to find out who it is herself. The girl turns around with a dazed look and pulls out her headphone from her ear as she waits for Artemis. Artemis extends her hand. "Hi, I'm Artemis Crock. Nice to meet you." She glances over to Wally and frowns. He continues sitting there, dazed, so she lightly punches him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asks, glaring at her.

"Dude, she's waiting for you to introduce yourself, Bay-…I mean, Wally." She had almost exposed Wally's nickname to some complete stranger.

He scratches the back of his head, nervously chuckling. He extends a hand towards the girl and says, "I'm Wally West. What about you?"

The girl shakes his hand and mutters quietly, "I'm Jennifer Leroux. I just came from France with my mother. You can call me Jenn or Jinx. Some of my old friends called me Jinx."

"Wait a minute, if you're from France, how come you're in Viet 2?" Artemis asks, confused.

Jinx abruptly smiles, as if this is a conversation she enjoys having. "Oh, it's because my mom and I travel around the world. She's a fortune teller and whenever she wants to go somewhere else, she takes me with her. I was in Vietnam for 10 years. I only stayed in France for two years. I spent most of my childhood in Vietnam, to be honest." Artemis nods, understanding dawning on her.

Before they can continue, the bells rings as their teacher, Mr. Tran stands up. He walks to the front of the class and waits for everyone to settle down. "Alright, welcome back to school. I'm Mr. Tran, but since there is more than one Mr. Tran, you can all call me Mr. Tran." He begins passing out a sheet of paper, the syllabus of his class. "I want you to bring home the paper and have your parents sign it."

He begins explaining his rules in complete detail about how you cannot go enter or exit his "bullet-proof curtains" unless for emergencies and how you cannot have food and drinks and Artemis drowns him out, continuing to stare at the sketch that Jinx is finishing up. She frowns, seeing her draw Cupid with his bow and arrow pointed at a rough sketch of Wally. Her face contorts into anger. Does this new girl honestly think she can take Wally away from her?

If that's what she thinks, then she's got something else coming to her…


Period 1

Room 410: Monsieur René

Rachel enters her French class with her head down, heading straight for the back of the class. Kory trails behind, also on the lookout for anyone that plans to pick on them. Rachel lightly places her books down and pops some earplugs into her ears, intending to drown out her classmates. She places her head down, trying to nap for a bit as Kory slides into the seat beside her. Rachel feels someone sitting on the desk in front of her and she groggily looks up, wondering why this person isn't scared of her. He seems to have long, white hair ruffled up as if he rushed to school without getting ready. He has a gray t-shirt on and black jeans, from what Rachel can see in the back. A striped scarf is wrapped around his neck to protect him from the cold.

She feels a tap on her shoulder and she glances over to Kory. "Rachel, Monsieur René is here." Rachel sighs, shifting herself her head still down. Kory knows that she's just tired, so she'll have something to tell René if he asks anything.

"Bonjour, class," he greets them with a French accent. "Most of you should remember me from French 1, but I know there are bound to be a few new students in our midst with an astonishing grasp of the French language."

He begins passing out a sheet of paper for them all. "Now, I know how shy you all are so I've decided to this little game called 'Friendly Bingo'! You will all go around, asking your fellow classmates for some information. Since there are 40 students, the first 10 will get a prize from me. You can ask each person for one thing only, and they must sign that box so I have proof that it wasn't you that did it. You will have until 8:45, after that, I will give you your syllabus and go over some of the general rules with you. Ready? Begin!" He steps back as the students surge towards each other, paper and pen in hand.

Rachel inwardly groans. She needs to talk to at least 4 people in order to get a prize. "Is it even worth it…? Will anyone even want to talk to me…?" She hangs her head low, staring at the boxes on the sheet of paper. She neatly scrawls her name, period, and date in the lines and just leans back as her music continues to play.

Wake up call,

Caught you in the morning

With another one in my bed

Don't you care about me anymore?

Don't you care about me? I don't think so.

She feels a sheet of paper sliding on top of her desk. She glances up, seeing the white-haired boy looking at her with his piercing gray eyes. His mouth is covered by the scarf and he seems to not care who she is. She pulls out an earbud, waiting for him to speak. "Hello, I'm Malchior Nelson," he introduces himself with a British accent. "I was looking at this and realized that I can fill in the 'Loves Horror/Mystery stories' for you."

"Oh, really? Well…" Rachel quickly scans the paper. "I can write my name for that one too," she decides. The two exchange papers and Rachel writes her signature, finishing it with a quick sketch of a raven after her name. She hands it back to him and he looks at it.

"A raven?" he asks, a smile becoming evident under his scarf.

She nods, "I started doing this a while ago. I just felt comfortable with it."

Malchior nods and stands up. "Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to go and finish the rest of this paper. I hear that he's going to give the first 10 some extra credit points." With that, he walks off and Rachel sits there, following him with her eyes as One Republic continues playing.

Stop and stare

I think I'm moving but I go nowhere.

Yeah, I know that everyone gets scared

But I've become what I can't be, oh

Stop and stare

You start to wonder why you're here, not there

And you'd give anything to get what's fair

But fair ain't what you really need

Oh, can you see what I see?

She feels a hand touch her shoulder, shaking her gently. "Rachel? Are you all right?" Kory asks worriedly. Rachel stares at the groups in the classroom as Monsieur René talks to Malchior. "Rachel?"

Rachel turns to her with a slight smile, shocking Kory. "I'm fine, Kory. Um…do you want me to sign my name for one of the lines?" she asks, hesitantly.

Kory stands there, stunned momentarily as she tries to process what her friend had just said. She brushes it off and nods. "I would love that, friend Rachel." As the two friends sign on each other's paper, Kory wonders if meeting this Malchior Nelson was exactly what Rachel needed to come out of her shell.


Later that day, during Lunch…

Garfield trudges through the hallways, whining to himself about how he doesn't have many classes with his friends and muttering darkly about how he has so many bad students in at least half of his classes thus far. Hopefully, he can get Victor or Richard to help him with his Geo homework. He's already skimmed ahead and every time he sees proofs, he has a strong urge to shudder in fear. He bends down to reach his locker as the person with the highest locker in his section maneuvers around him. "Sorry, Kory," he apologizes.

The two friends pull out the books for their next classes: Garfield with his English Literature book and Kory with her World History book. "It is no problem, Gar," she brushes off as the two walk over to their old eating area. During the summer, the school had moved a section of the lockers to the area where they eat. Rachel had decided to stay there, and just remember to move out of the way for the people using the lockers.

As Garfield drops his backpack down on the ground, Rachel appears with Artemis trailing behind her. Rachel places her backpack against a locker with no lock and leans against it. She pulls out a brown bag containing her ham and cheese sandwich, complete with a Caprisun and a bag of Doritos. Artemis sets her books down, her lunch on top. She had bought a sub from one of the lunch carts that are scattered around the quad area. They had given her a "Welcome back cookie" and a small carton of orange juice.

Rachel curses her luck; she seems to have a 4th period curse that has been following her since her 7th grade. She always seems to have horrible students placed into her 4th period and the teacher is always too mellow to do much. Or maybe it's just because she gets picked on by the students and the teacher doesn't seem to care. Well, the teacher seems all right…maybe it's just the students in there.

Artemis slides over and leans against the locker next to Rachel, and mutters something incoherently under her voice. "Why the fuck do we have to be stuck with those bastards…?" she curses.

"Who is in your class?" Kory asks as Garfield skims through his Geometry book, feeling more and more scared by the aspect of proofs.

"We have Dylan, Jason, Frank, Tommy, Paul, Blanca, and a few of those kids," Artemis ticks off the names with venom. Rachel nods, rather miffed about their fate. The kids that they are mentioning are students that are "straight up on drugs and are proud of it" as they say it to those that ask. They haven't learned their names yet, but Rachel just knows that they are going to cause so much trouble that she might punch someone in the face.

"Dude, Dylan's in my Geo class and he won't keep his stupid mouth shut!" Garfield complains. The trio sighs, cursing their luck.

"Why is it that every time I show up, I hear you guys complaining about someone or something?" Richard asks as he, Victor, Wally, and Roy appear with trays and books in hand.

"Because fate is a bastard and Karma is a bitch," Rachel mutters, trying not to look at Richard. Artemis rolls her eyes, hoping Richard didn't notice her trying to avoid him. You see, our little…er…our short, purple-haired, amethyst-colored eyes high school student has a little crush on the "Boy Genius", Richard Grayson. Artemis suspects that he knows, and he could possibly return her feelings, but Artemis had promised Rachel not to do her part and get them together. She had agreed that she will let time take its course, wondering how this will end.

Despite the situations around Artemis and Rachel, there is still romance brewing in the cauldron of their friends. After all, Jackson had gotten together with Tula sometime during their freshmen year and she was almost 100% positive that Conner and Megan had gotten together sometime during the summer. She sighs, and Rachel stares at her in concern. Artemis tells her with her eyes that everything is fine and she sees Jackson walking out of the 200 building hand in hand with Tula.

Rachel follows her gaze and looks down, taking a bite out of her sandwich. Richard pulls out his schedule, committing his schedule to memory. "Yo, whaddya got next for 5th?" Victor asks, leaning over.

"Pre-calc. Then I've got basketball practice, and after that, I'm heading out to the pool for my try-outs."

"Look at the smart-ass over here," Artemis chuckles, elbowing Rachel playfully. "He's the only one in our group that's got Pre-calc."

"While I have Geo…with stupid Dylan and Terrence," Garfield complains.

"Man, if you hate it so much, ask if you can transfer outta the class."

"Dude, the other classes are chock full of the mean kinds of freshmen and other junky sophomores. Dylan and Terrence are the only two guys that are probably gonna be causing a lot of mayhem in the class. I think I'm just gonna ignore them…"

Wally chews his burger thoughtfully, staring at something in the distance. Artemis follows his gaze and sees him staring, almost wistfully, at Jinx. A cold hand clutches her heart, as worry washes over her. Is he going to fall for Jinx? When she's already so close to him, he's just going to dump her and become Jinx's boyfriend?

Roy crumples up his lunch, and stands up to throw it away when Connor and Megan appear. Connor is holding a book at his side as his left hand hides behind their bodies with Megan's right hand as well. Even from afar, Rachel can tell that they are holding hands. Artemis grins, "What took you lovebirds so long?"

Megan looks away, a blush creeping over her face as Connor stutters. "Uh…um…I-I was waiting for her outside of her 4th period class."

"Lovebirds," Richard teases. "Wish I had someone to do that too. Then the girls would just stop fawning over me."

"You and me both, Richard. I think I've got another admirer…" Victor mutters worriedly, pulling out a small, crumpled note. Wally and Roy immediately pounce on the opportunity.

"What, you got someone, lover boy?" Roy begins.

"What's her name?" Wally asks.

"I don't know the girl's name, but she says that she's in my Chem and Spanish class. I have this odd feeling that we have 5th period together too…"

"Do you mean Sarah Simms?" Richard asks. Rachel looks up. Where had she heard that name before?

"Hey, Rachel, isn't she in our…3rd period?" Artemis begins, going over the students' faces and matching names with them in her mind.

"…Possibly," Rachel answers slowly.

The boys abruptly stand up, picking up their books and slinging duffel bags and backpacks on. "Where are you guys off to?" Artemis asks.

"We've got some sports meetings. All of us…" Wally mutters, a bit irritated.

"But…I don't-" Garfield begins

"Uh, yeah, you do," Wally interrupts, shooting him a meaningful look. Rachel spots the realization dawning on him and immediately begins to grow suspicious. Artemis narrows her eyes at them, trying to figure out what is going on. What's going on with the boys? Kory and Megan don't seem to want to protest, so the two girls brush it off.

As the boys walk off, Connor reluctantly releases his hand from Megan. He mutters something in her ear and pecks her swiftly on the cheek, immediately following the boys. Megan slumps down, her face beet red.

"There is something definitely going on," Rachel begins.

"What are we supposed to do though? Follow after them?" Artemis pauses to swiftly check the time, looking at her phone. "We've only got 10 minutes left of lunch. We'll just ask them later."

Rachel admits defeat, leaning back against the lockers. "I have this feeling that they're planning something big. But I'm not sure if it's going to affect the whole school or just us. Kory, Megan, do you guys know what's up?"

Megan shakes her head, concern showing on her face. "Do you think they're going to do something bad?"

"I do not think they would be those kinds of people. I believe that they are just getting something together for us," Kory reassures, ever the mother in their group.

"Well, I hope nothing bad happens…" Rachel mutters.

She wonders if this school year is going to finally make her snap…


Elsewhere on the school campus…

"Richard, man, are you sure about this?" Victor asks as the male teens continue walking through the school.

"I'm positive. If this is what it takes, then I'll do it…no matter how much I don't want to." He pauses, gritting his teeth. "And I really don't want to…" He frowns under his sunglasses as Wally catches up to him.

"Dude, it's not worth it. What if it turns out to be wrong? Why don't we just talk to her to get some more info before we do anything," Wally attempts to convince Richard.

"Guys, I have to do this. This is the only way I'll know for sure."

As Victor and Wally attempt to convince their friend, Roy and Connor trail behind. "I don't know, Roy, but I feel like this is a really bad idea…"

"Well, we'll know for sure when it happens. I honestly don't know how this is going to turn out, so I, for one, look forward to this."

Connor looks at the trio ahead of them and glances at Garfield. "What's your opinion on this, Gar?"

Garfield looks up and contemplates on the situation. "I have a feeling that she's going to strangle him. If not her, then Artemis or Kory. So…I think we should make sure Richard's got his will written and that we get something from him," the youngest sophomore in the group replies with a cheeky grin.

Connor smirks at the joke. "Well, I call his sunglasses."

"Pfft, whatever. I call dibs on his hair gel. It looks so badass."

Meanwhile, Roy is wondering about the possible outcomes in this situation. Richard could get his ass kicked, or he could embarrass himself beyond redemption. "I wonder how this year is going to turn out. Already, there's a plan brewing," he muses.

"Guys, no matter what you say, it's only going to strengthen my resolve more. So you might as well stop. I'm almost positive that she likes me too, so this is the only thing I can think of to prove it. Trust me…it's going to hurt me a lot when I see her expression…"

Victor shakes his head, letting the teen make his choice. Wally steps back, deciding that his friend won't listen to reason so he might as well just stop.

The teens walk up to the girl that Roy, Artemis, and Rachel had encountered. She glares menacingly at Roy, but immediately smiles when she sees Richard appear. Richard gags inwardly, momentarily regretting his plan. "Oh, hello there, Richard," she begins, slipping in a flirty tone underneath. Richard's friends quickly glance at each other, wondering if their friend has lost his mind.

Richard coughs, sweat beginning to pour down his face. "Um…would you…" Kitten bats her eyes, her fake eyelashes as she waits for him. "W-would you l-like to go out…w-with me…?"


Lefty: …I honestly think my life is slowly leaking into this story…that isn't a good sign…

May: Just saying, Lefty has a nonexistent boyfriend….for now. So, uh, she knows NOTHING about romance. Nothing, so most of the romance and fluffy stuff is rather stereotypical and from what she sees at school. And she takes them and makes them even more…uh…extravagant.

Lefty: Oh and don't expect an update from this story or "Thanagarian" for a while. The earliest I'll update is possibly when winter break begins…which is the last two weeks of December -_-

Ah, and it's great to be back writing this story, everyone! Review! ^_^