Chapter Two: After School Activities
Monday, August 24th 3:10 PM - Jump City High school Stadium.
Normal POV
By the time the girls passed through the stadium gates, there were already over two hundred people on the stadium bleachers, waiting to watch practice. strangely enough over half of the crowd consisted of girls, something that confused Kori, she believing it to be a male dominated sport, due to its high violence level.
"There are many females here," she commented, as she looked over the crowd.
Bee nodded. "Yeah, they're here to see Dick. It was like this every practice over summer."
Kori frowned. Something about the idea of all these girls drooling over Richard didn't sit well with her.
Bee saw her frown and giggled a little, as they leaned against the gate that separated the field from the bleachers. Raven chose to sit and read, like she always did every time she came to "watch" practice. Not long after the girls got settled in, the players came running onto the field, fully dressed in their black and silver jerseys, and black helmets with silver numbers on the side. The crowd erupted into cheers, while Kori tried to locate Richard, but couldn't find him because everyone looked similar in the jerseys and helmets, the only difference being the numbers each player wore.
"Bee, what number is Richard wearing?," Kori asked, still scanning the field of sixty or so players.
"He's number twelve, Vic's eighty-four, and Gar's twenty-seven," Bee informed.
Kori beamed when she found Richard, standing beside Coach Garret. He had a black helmet visor covering his face, but somehow still looked insanely attractive. Maybe it was the uniform.
"Alright," Coach Garret began, "Starters get lined up, backups get to the bench." The players followed Coach Garret's orders, Richard taking his place at quarterback, Vic at receiver, and due to injury to another player, Gar lined up at cornerback. They ran plays for over for over forty minutes, only stopping when Coach Garret blew his whistle. "Alright, helmets and pads off. Ten one hundred yard sprints and were done." All the players took off their equipment, and lined up on the one yard line. The girls in the stand began to 'eep' and whistle, while Kori searched for the cause of the commotion, and found that Richard stood on the line completely shirtless. The sight was something Kori could only describe as absolutely glorious. Her eyes lingered on him as he ran. She absent-mindedly let out a dreamy sigh, causing to Bee glance at her with a knowing smile on her face. Eventually the sprints concluded and the boys headed to the locker room, all except Richard.
"Hey Kori," he greeted as he approached.
She said nothing, being far to busy studying his muscular arms, steel chest, and perfect eight pack, with extreme care.
He looked at her oddly, unable see her eyes looking him over due to the sunglasses, so she just appeared dazed out to him. "umm, Kori?"
She fell back to Earth, realizing Richard was talking to her. "Oh um, yes?," she questioned, extremely flustered.
"I was just gonna tell you I'd only be a minute," he replied.
"Oh, I thank you for the up heads," she smiled nervously.
"Heads up," he corrected with a chuckle.
"Um yes, heads up," she repeated with a nod of understanding as she committed the expression to her memory.
"Oh, Dickie-poo," came Kitten's voice from somewhere in the crowd.
"Well, that's my que to leave," he said, before taking off into a dead sprint out of the stadium, and off to the locker room.
Kori sighed contently, as "wait, Dickie-poo," could be heard faintly in the background.
Bee laughed at Kori's love struck expression. "Looks like someone has a thing for Dick."
"Who is this person and what thing do they have for him?," Kori inquired.
Bee had forgotten she just had to say what she meant to Kori. "I mean you like him."
"Of course I like him, he is most nice," she replied matter-of-factly.
Bee continued to tease, seeing that Kori didn't quite understand her. "No, I mean you like him," she emphasized.
Kori's face turned red, now understanding. "Well um,... I umm," Kori stuttered.
Bee just smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay girl, I'm not gonna tell him."
Kori breathed a sigh of relief. "I thank you." Truthfully, he probably knew already. He was Dick Grayson, every girl liked him.
Just then Raven entered the conversation. Neither Bee nor Kori had even heard her approach. "Just be careful Kori, Dick isn't the kind of guy to hang around one girl long, and you're the first girl we actually like in... well, ever really."
Kori frowned at the thought of Richard with other girls. "I am aware he is the player, girls in school call him this, and the man whore," at the 'man whore' comment Bee burst into laughter, but Kori only continued, "But, I do not believe he is as bad as they say."
"He's a good guy. It's just the prospect of a serious girlfriend scares the daylight out of him," Bee responded
"Not a serious girlfriend, but becoming overly attached to someone and losing them," Raven corrected. She knew Richard better than anyone, probably because she could feel what he felt. She knew his wants, fears, and memories like the back of her hand, as she did everyone in the group.
Kori was about to continue questioning about Richard, she wanted to know everything, but Vic's booming voice stopped her. "Girl's let's roll, I'm starving," he called from outside the stadium.
The girls exited the stadium and found themselves in the stadium's parking lot. Kori found Richard, now dressed, leaning against his black Ferrari, while Vic and Gar stood next to Vic's blue and white charger. "Ready?," he questioned, opening the passenger side door for her.
"Yes." She smiled at him as she climbed in. He shut the door behind her and walked around to the other side, while Vic, Bee, Gar, and Raven all got in Vic's charger. The cars cranked, and Richard drove out of the parking lot followed by Vic.
Monday, August 24th 4:45 PM - Richard's house
Richard's car came to a stop in front of a large gate. Rolling rolled down the driver's side window, he entered the security code into a silver metallic device on the brick siding of the gate. Suddenly the it swung open, and he drove through, with Vic right behind him. After driving down a long pavement driveway, a huge, gothic style house came into view.
Kori's eyes widened at the massive house. "Xhal," she breathed, taking in its sheer size. Richard pulled into a large garage and was shortly followed by Vic pulling in next to him. Kori slowly exited the car, still taking everything in. She moved the glasses off her eyes to the top of her head, as she followed everyone out of the garage, and to the front the door, watching with interest as Richard placed his thumb on a scanner like device beside the door. She guessed it was to unlock it because after he did he opened it and everyone headed inside. Upon entering, she found herself in awe once more.
The interior was elegant to say the least. Up ahead, to her left, was a large Kitchen with black floor tiles and red-painted walls. She could tell as she passed by that it was rarely, if ever used. To her right was a staircase, and straight ahead was the living room, where everyone was headed.
In the living room was a large black couch in the shape of a 'U', a huge flat screen television hung on the wall in front of it, with a movie case beside it, where literally hundreds of DVDs sat lined into rows. Kori was snapped out of her awed state when she heard Gar's voice. "I called Pizza Hut on the way here, and ordered two cheese pizzas, two meet lovers, and one veggie for me."
Richard nodded in response. "Alright, who's turn is it to pick a movie?," he questioned.
"Mine," Bee exclaimed as she darted toward the movie case. After a few minutes of going through the countless DVDs, she turned back to the group, hiding the movie behind her back.
"Well?," Richard questioned.
"Valentines Day," Bee squealed, as she showed the DVD off.
"No," Gar complained. "I hate chick flicks."
"I watch all those stupid movies you pick!," she retorted.
"My movies aren't stupid!," Gar protested.
As their argument continued Kori looked up at Richard, who stood next to her. "Richard?"
He looked down at her. "Yeah, Kor?"
"What is the chick flick?," she asked, scrunching her eyebrows in the cutest way.
"A movie meant for girls, usually in the romance genre," he explained.
She beamed brightly. "Oh yes, I wish to watch the chick flick," she exclaimed gleefully. She was very eager to get a better idea of how human romance worked.
Bee smiled at her, while Gar huffed and mumbled something inaudible. Just then the doorbell rung, instantly raising Gar's spirits. "Pizza's here," he exclaimed. Richard reached into his pocket and pulled out a fifty, but before he could even get his arm extended fully, Gar snatched the money out of his hand and darted to the front door.
"If only he'd moved that fast in practice," Vic commented.
Gar returned a minute later carrying five stacked pizza boxes, which he sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch and began searching for his veggie pizza, which he eventually found. Kori looked back at Richard, a questioning expression on her face. "Your parents will not mind me being here, yes?"
Everyone froze, even Gar who was in mid bite on a slice of pizza. They all had the same expression on their faces. Shock. Everyone knew about Richard's parents and what happened, but he never had talked about it with any of them, and they had never asked.
"Did I say something wrong?," she asked worriedly as she looked over the other teens, then to Richard.
"umm no, it's just my parents are dead," he said, not looking at anything in particular.
She gasped, and covered her mouth. "Oh, I am truly sorry. I did not know." It made sense now why Raven said he was scared of getting close to someone and losing them. She knew the pain of losing both parents. It was a terrible experience for anyone to go through.
"There's no need to apologize," he eased her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone knows, I'm not used to them being brought up I guess."
She was hesitant but her curiosity was strong. "May... may I ask what happened?"
Everyone's eyes darted from Richard to Kori then back to Richard. "Umm, okay," he agreed, taking a seat on the couch. Kori followed him, he having her full attention as he did everyone in the room.
"Me and my parents were acrobats, traveling the world with Haley's Circus, performing under the name The Flying Grayson's. When I was eight, we did a show in Gotham, but before the show began, a mob boss named Toni Zucco threatened the circus manager. He said that if they didn't pay him, he couldn't guarantee the safety of the audience or the performers. When the manager refused, Zucco got angry and stormed off. The show still went on as planned, despite the threat."
Richard paused long enough to take in a deep breath, preparing to begin the hardest part of the story. "Eventually it was my parents turn to perform. They had done the act a million times, but that night it was different." He gazed blankly at the floor, and let out a deep sigh, causing Kori to take his hand, stroking the top of it with her thumb. He clutched it lightly in response and continued. "They jumped, not knowing the rope had been cut. I watched them fall. I can still hear the crowd gasp as they hit the ground."
He felt Kori squeeze his hand, and Vic's much larger hand fall onto his shoulder. "Bruce Wayne was in the audience that night. He watched his parents die in front of him and knowing the pain, or rather the emptiness that I felt, he adopted me, took care of me, and eventually, I grew to view him as my father. Last year we had a slight disagreement on certain matters, so I moved to Jump, and that's pretty much it. A couple of years after my parent's death, Batman and Robin brought Zucco to justice so he could never hurt anyone again, which I'm very thankful for because for a long time after, I wanted to kill him, but that would have made me no better than him."
Upon conclusion Richard became aware of the sound of soft sobbing and he turned to see tears falling down Kori's face. "Hey, don't cry," he pleaded, brushing the tears from her cheek.
"I cannot help it," she responded weakly. She felt so bad for him and was unable to hide her emotions.
"Really, it's okay." Richard looked around the room, glancing at each person in it. "This is my family now, granted dysfunctional at times, but still family."
Everyone smiled a little at the warm moment, even Raven.
"Ya see little lady, none of us really have parents, but that's okay. We take care of each other," Vic added giving her a brotherly smile
"Yeah, blood doesn't make you family, caring about each other does," Bee joined in.
"See Kor, no reason to cry," Richard comforted resting his hand on hers. "Now, how about that chick flick?"
She nodded, a soft smile beginning to play on her lips. "Yes, let us watch the chick flick."
Richard smiled at her before standing, and pulling her up with him. "I'll get everyone some drinks, how about you guys show Kori to the movie room."
"Alright," Vic nodded, before grabbing the pizza boxes, and turning to walk down the hallway to the left.
"C'mon Kor," Gar motioned as he followed behind Vic and the girl's. Kori followed the group through two red double doors, where once inside she laid her eyes on five rows of four movie theater style seats, and a large projection screen that took up the entire far wall. This house just continued to amaze her.
Vic grabbed a remote from a table off to the side, and pressed one of the many buttons on it. Suddenly the projector attached to ceiling clicked on and casted it's light on the projection screen. He put Bee's movie into the DVD player hooked up to the projector, and previews of other movies began to play on the screen.
Kori's gaze was only broken when she heard Bee whisper in her ear. "Just a heads up, Dick always sits on the top row."
Kori nodded, understanding where she was going. "I thank you," she whispered back before heading back up the stairs and taking a seat in one of the chairs.
Bee gave her a wink before joining her boyfriend in the first row, sitting in front of Gar, who set in the second, while Raven settled in the third. Richard walked into the room shortly after, struggling to carry all the drinks in his hands. "Cokes for you two," he said heading down to the front row and handing a coke to Bee and Vic. "Pepsi for you," he handed the drink to gar, "and tea for you." He gave Raven her tea before heading to the top row. "I forgot to ask you what you wanted, so I just got us both a sprite. I hope that's okay," he said as he handed her the drink
"Oh yes, that is the okay," she assured, looking up at him with a huge smile on her face. She had never really had a soft drink, so it didn't matter one way or the other, although she did like the color of the bottle. Richard took a seat directly beside her, which she was secretly ecstatic about.
With everyone settled, pizzas were passed out. Vic got both of the meat lovers to himself, Gar got his veggie pizza, Bee and Raven shared a cheese, as did Richard and Kori."Alright ladies and gentlemen, I now present you with Valentine's Day," Vic said, pressing play on the remote.
"Yay," Gar said with fake enthusiasm, earning a glare from Bee.
The movie began, and everyone sat back and watched, some reluctantly. Kori found the combination of pizza and sprite glorious, as well as human romance. To Tameranians, lip contact meant nothing more than the transfer of language, but to human's it was romantic and sensual. At one point during the movie she found herself imagining what kissing Richard would be like, which made her blush for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Occasionally Richard would glance at her, always finding her smiling, which for some reason made him smile.
The movie came to an end around seven, much to Gar's enjoyment. "Thank God it's finally over! I don't think my eyes could take much more," he exclaimed rubbing his eyes.
"It wasn't that bad," Richard replied
"I thought it was most glorious," Kori exclaimed gleefully, clapping her hands together for emphasis.
"Well of course Kor and playboy liked it, it was a romance movie after all," Vic teased.
"And you didn't?, Bee questioned, glaring at her boyfriend.
He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well uh, it was okay."
Gar pointed at him, laughing. "Dude, you're so whipped."
"Keep it up Grass Stain and you'll be walking home," Vic retorted
Gar instantly shut up.
"Speaking of which," Raven chimed in, "I need to get home and do my homework." Everyone, besides Kori of course, knew that was code for 'I need to meditate.'
Vic nodded and stood. "Yeah, I guess we better get on the road. You taking Kori home Dick?"
"Yeah, I got her," he replied.
"Alright, see you two tomorrow," Vic said before heading out of the room.
"Night Dick, night Kor," Bee waved, following Vic out.
"See ya dudes," Gar added.
Raven just gave a small wave on her way out.
Once everyone had left the room, Richard turned to Kori. "Well, you have fun?"
She beamed at him. "Yes, very much."
"I'm glad," he said truthfully. Now was usually the time when he'd take the girl up to his room, have hot, meaningless sex with her, then send her on her way, but Kori needed a friend, not a hook-up. "Ready to go?"
'Not at all,' Kori thought to herself but nodded regardless. She hated that the night had to end, it was just a reminder of how terrible her life actually was, but Richard had improved it just by talking to her. Rather he would continue to want her around was anyone's guess. She desperately hoped that he would.
Monday, August 24th 7:10 PM - Highway 210
Normal POV
Richard drove down the road in silence, Kori in the passenger seat. Before departing his house, Kori had given him her address, his stomach twisting the moment he heard it. He didn't even have to put it in the GPS, knowing exactly where it was.
She lived in easily the worst part of Jump City, and not only that, but there had been four murders in her area just the day before. On the inside he was extremely concerned, border line freaking out in fact, but his outside appearance was completely stoic. He knew something wasn't right, but he was also aware that he had to remain as calm and rational as possible, so he just drove quietly for thirty minutes until he pulled up in front of a grimy, broken-down apartment complex, that he knew was full of gang members and drug dealers.
Kori opened the door, and got out. She turned and gave him a weak smile, before taking the glasses off her head and attempted to hand them to him, but he gently pushed her hand away.
"Keep them," he smiled at her.
She returned his smile, and placed them back on her head. "I thank you." Glancing at him one last time, she turned and began heading toward her apartment. Richard watched her take about six steps, before opening his own door and scrambling out of the car. Kori heard the sound of his door shut and turned to see him jogging toward her. "Richard? Did you do the forgetting of something?," she questioned.
"No, it's just that it's dark. Let me walk you in," he replied in a tone that left no room for argument.
Kori bit her bottom lip nervously, knowing she couldn't let him see how she lived. "Very well," she agreed hesitantly.
Richard placed his hand on her lower back and followed her to an apartment with an upside down five on it. As she opened the door, he went into detective mode. Even though it was dark inside, he could see part of what he assumed to be the living room, It looking completely empty.
She stood in her doorway and looked up at him with a nervous smile. "Pleasant snorvlaks Richard, I shall see you tomorrow." She attempted to shut the door, but Richard's foot at the bottom stopped her.
"May I use your bathroom? I really have to go," he lied
She began to sweat. "I do not think..."
Before she could refuse he moved past her, into the apartment.
Kori hung her head in shame as Richard's mouth fell agape at what he saw before him. In the middle of the living room laid a blanket that appeared as if it had been slept on. He assumed she had been using it as a bed. There was a small, very old t.v not far from the blanket and in the corner of the room there were five shirts, two pair of pants, and a few pair of women's under garments folded neatly. He guessed those were the only close she had.
Nothing else to be seen in the living room, he journeyed to the next room, which happened to be the kitchen. Clicking on the light switch by the doorway, the dim lights flashed on, and he saw a billion roaches scatter. That was it, he'd seen enough. Turning back into the living room, he walked over to her. She looked so ashamed, and he could tell she was about to cry.
"Kori, where are your parents?," he asked.
She visibly tensed as tears began to roll down her face. "Like yours they are... gone," she answered weakly. Unable to meet his eyes, she couldn't see the sorrow on his face. After a moment's pause she felt herself being pulled into a tight hug.
It caught her off guard first, but hugging back, she buried her face into his chest. Allowing herself to fully let go, tears began to pour from her eyes like rain falling from the sky, all the misery she had felt over the last year, expressing itself with each tear drop.
They stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, him just holding her as if his life depended on it, allowing her to release her pain. He felt terrible, he couldn't let her stay here, he wouldn't let her in fact. She didn't deserve any of this. When her sobs quitened a little he spoke softly. "Kori, you can't stay here."
"I have no where else to go," she continued crying into his chest.
"You can stay with me," he said in a soft tone.
His offer surprised her, causing her to lean back and look him in the face. He seemed hurt. She shook her head somberly. "I cannot intrude on you, besides you do not know me."
"Kor, you wouldn't be intruding, and I know you're a good person, that's enough," he insisted, pleadingly
She shook her head once more, as tears once again began to pour. "I just... I cannot."
Richard sighed and pulled her back into his chest, leaning down a little so that his lips were touching her ear. He then spoke in the most comforting tone she'd ever heard. "Kori, for a long time after my parents died, I believed it was my fault. If only I could have done something... anything, maybe they'd still be alive. I vowed I would never set back and watch an innocent person suffer, when I could do something to help, so, either you come with me and get your own room, with a soft, warm bed, or we both stay here and sleep on the floor. I'm not leaving without you," he said definitely.
She could tell he was serious. If she wouldn't leave, he would stay. She couldn't let him do that, besides he wanted to help her, and she sorely needed it. Nodding into his chest. she agreed. "Okay."
Richard smiled down at her, giving her a tight squeeze to show he was happy, before releasing her and going to collect what few close she had. As he draped them over his arm, he made a mental note to have Bee take her shopping at the mall the next day. Close in hand, he walked back to her, where she stood by the doorway, and wrapped his arm around her, allowing her to lean into him, comfortably. "C'mon, let's go home," he smiled warmly down at her as he led her out the door and away from her former life. She had no idea he was Nightwing and it didn't matter. He was already her hero.