After hours of Mahjong and Solitaire, one sick day from school, and 5+ rerun episodes of Conan, I've managed to finish this chapter in less than a week. Be proud, dear readers, be proud. I've been meaning to answer a couple of questions I've gotten in some reviews, but I always manage to forget to until after I publish the chapter. I remembered this time, though!
"Is Tess related to Black Canary or not?" - BellaLuz64
Tess actually isn't related to Black Canary at all. Dinah is her godmother, and her adoptive mother, but she isn't related by blood. I haven't mentioned Tess's real parents yet, I know, but they'll play a big part in future chapters (where I deviate from the actual episodes). Both of her parents are still alive, though, but I'm not going to delve any farther into that.
There will be more Roy! I swear! The next chapter will have a moment between the two - one that I think ya'll will like!
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE! - I made a set on Polyvore for Tess's outfit in this chapter, so if you go to my profile there will be a link to that.
*Takes a deep breath* Phew! Okay, you can read now!
- - Friday, August 6 (I felt compelled to add the date) - -
I rang the doorbell to the giant mansion in front of me, arms crossed with a scowl on my face as I tapped my foot impatiently. "Come on, come on, come on. Open the freaking door, Ollie!"
The door finally swung open, revealing a tall broad-shouldered man with blonde hair and a goatee. Ollie, of course. "Tess! What a pleasant surprise!" he paused, taking in my angry demeanor, and rethought his statement. "Or, maybe it's not a pleasant surprise. What can I help you with?"
"Is your protege here?" I spat, my eyes narrowing into slits. "I need to have a word with her."
"Yeah, she's out back, fixing one of her trick arrows..." I brushed past him, turning through hallways with my fist clenched around an arrow – more specifically, the arrow that caused this mess. Once I reached the French doors leading to the courtyard, I ripped them open and saw a flash of blonde hair sitting underneath a large oak tree. Seeing red, I stomped across the grass and slammed the arrowhead down into the dirt next to her leg. She jumped, staring up at me with shocked eyes as I straightened up and crossed my arms once again.
"What the hell?" she shouted, shocked.
"Wanna tell me what the hell you were doing at Gotham Academy Tuesday?" I hissed, gesturing to the arrow. "Obviously it wasn't a school tour."
"What? You think I was spying on you?" I didn't answer, it was hardly a question. She knew exactly what I was thinking. "Freaking unbelievable. I know I'm not exactly the most trustworthy person –"
"So do I. You're probably the most untrustworthy person."
She scowled, and continued. "But I wouldn't stoop low enough to spy on your precious team. Hell, in two days time, they're gonna be my team, too." She stood up so she could be eye-to-eye with me (actually, I was taller, but that hardly matters), and her dirty look intensified. "I was helping you."
"Helping? You think by almost shooting Kid Flash and then inspiring some sort of false hope into my gullible teammates is helping?" I repeated incredulously. "Everything would've gone a thousand times better if you hadn't intervened."
"Oh, yeah, 'cause you had it so under control," she scoffed. "In case you hadn't been paying attention, Miss I-Got-My-Ass-Handed-To-Me-On-A-Silver-Platter, but that Flash kid was about to be strangled to death! I freaking saved his life, and you're yelling at me?"
"I had a plan!"
"You had absolutely nothing! I could tell!"
"How could you tell?" I screeched. "You don't know me!"
"I know you well enough to know that there's nothing going on in that blonde head of yours!"
"Oh screw you!"
"You know I'm right! You're the weakest link on the team and you hate it! You've got all this "raised by Canary" shit you've been pulling and you still lose every damn battle you've ever fought on your precious team!"
"I shouldn't have to deal with this," I scowled, picking up the arrow, before waving it at her with every word I spoke. "You shouldn't even be on the team."
She didn't even look remotely offended until her eyes widened, like she had just had an epiphany. A sadistic smirk spread across her face. "Oh, so that's what you're mad about."
"I don't know what the hell you think you've figured out, Crock –"
"You're not mad because I intervened, you're mad because your Knight in Red Armor didn't!"
"What? You're insane!"
"No, I'm right!" she countered, laughing slightly and shaking her head. "You talk about your team being hopeful that Speedy will come back, but your delusions are worst of all. You know he wont join the team, but you're still stuck on the idea that your precious boyfriend will just come running back to you. You'll become what you used to be, maybe go off all vigilante with him. He'll finally reciprocate the feelings you thought you had expertly hidden from him. Everything will be perfect and you'll have 2.5 kids and live happily ever after."
I opened my mouth to reply, but the full gravity of what she had said hit me full force, and I ended up gaping like a fish at her. "No, you're wrong," I whispered, finally finding the words to say as I suddenly felt all of the anger I had harbored fizzle out, and be replaced by a heavy weight in my chest. "You're wrong."
"Guess what? Nothing like that is ever going to happen."
Artemis's words cut like a knife through my heart, and I felt tears prick my eyes. It didn't even hurt because of the offense behind them, no, it hurt because I knew they were true. Every word she had spoken so far was horribly, painfully true. Shoving my way around her, I collapsed at the base of the tree and pulled my knees to my chest. "This can't be happening," I moaned softly, burying my face into my knees. "Why am I so stupid?"
Artemis sat down beside me after a while of staring and mimicked my position, glancing at me out of the corner of her deep, dark blue eyes. "So, this mood swing thing you have going on? Does it happen often?" She flinched slightly at the glare I gave her. "Just asking."
"...Increasingly, yes," I finally answered, rubbing my eyes free of tears with my thumbs from under my glasses (since I didn't wear a mask on the job, the glasses are kinda mandatory; I can see perfectly fine without them). "Okay, I'm a wimp."
"That's for sure."
"Oh, thanks," I scoffed, nudging her shoulder a little. She laughed under her breath and nudged me back.
We sat there in silence for god-knows-how-long, watching the trees at the end of the lot sway back and forth, before I finally lifted my phone up to my face to check the time. It was quarter after one, and I still had to eat before I got home, because, frankly, I'm starving. I sighed, rocking on my heels to bring myself up to my feet, before pulling off my glasses to rub them on the bottom of my shirt. "Well, I'm gonna go now..." I mumbled, slowly making my way back up the hill.
"Wait!" Artemis called, jumping up and jogging after me. "Where are you going?"
"To get something to eat...and then I'm gonna head home. Why?" I rose my eyebrows at her, surprised. Why would she care?
"Uh, no reason..."
"Do you...want to come with?" I offered awkwardly, shrugging my shoulders. "I'll look much cooler than if I ate by myself if you do."
"Yeah," she paused, as a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "That sounds good."
"Cool. I'll just go tell Ollie we're leaving while you get your stuff together," I smiled congenially and slowly backed up again. "Just meet me by the door."
She nodded her affirmative, and went down to put her arrows back in her quiver at the bottom of the hill. I watched her, still a little shocked at the events that had just transpired. Well, the rest of today will certainly be very interesting.
"So," Artemis began, hanging off the edge of my couch as we watched reruns of Japanese ninja competitions on the TV. "You and Roy, huh?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, my gaze not wavering from the TV, where a fat man had just fallen into mud. This show is awful, I noted for future reference.
"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about," she teased. She pulled herself up from the ground and swung around to sit cross-legged facing me. "I've seen the pictures."
"We're friends, if that's what you're hinting at." Please let that be what she's hinting at.
"Right, right," she agreed condescendingly. "And I'm the Queen of England. Don't try to deny it, Tess, you like him."
"I do not."
"Yes you do! He even took you to prom last year!"
"Okay, how the hell do you know that?" I gasped. Who told her? "And we went as friends."
"Ollie has so many pictures of you two together around the house. Seeing you two together litterally makes me sick."
"You're awful!" I was trying so hard to not laugh; I couldn't help myself. For some reason, the thought of Roy and I together making Artemis sick was hilarious. After a few more minutes of trying to quell my laughter, I finally managed to turn and give Artemis the most sincere look I can muster. "You know what's fun?"
She regarded me with unease, "...What?"
"Hanging teenage hoodlums by their ankles." At her confused look, I felt compelled to add. "This is getting boring; you wanna come with me and do just that?" The smirk on her face said all that needed to be said, and we both rushed up the stairs to get our costumes back on.
This was the beginning of a beautiful, dysfunctional friendship