Bethany POV

The next day, I almost slept in. If it hadn't been for Artemis that came and pounded on the door at 7:00 am yelling, "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!" then I wouldn't have woken up at all. I slept for about 20 minutes more until I actually got up. I hadn't gone to bed until really late last night, but luckily, I had done all of my homework before my shower yesterday. I looked in the mirror that morning and I had slight dark circles underneath my eyes and my hair was really flat. I was way too lazy to worry about makeup, so I just washed my face and then did a sloppy french braid.

My wounds were already healing at an unnatural speed, thanks to Zatara and Martian Manhunter. They healed my body a little bit everyday. After a whole week of magical healing, my body was fully healed. There were only some scabs and bruises on my upper body. No more cracked ribs, dislocated knee, and God knows what else.

When I got to the kitchen, M'gann was already cooking up some eggs and toast. She had organized them all onto styrofoam plates on the counter with a to-go cup of orange juice.

"Hi, Bethany! How was your sleep?" She asked me brightly. Ugh! She's too cheerful in the morning. WHY?!

I mumbled something unidentifiable in response.

"Just take a plate and a cup and you can go. It's already 7:30, doesn't your school start at 7:45?" I nodded.

"Artemis already left. She said something about going to a morning detention," M'gann tapped her chin.

"Aren't you going to be late for school?"

"No, Connor and I get to school around 8: 20. Our school starts at 8:30."

"Not fair," I grumbled,.

"Don't forget training with Black Canary today after school!"

"Yeah, yeah," I murmured. I acted nonchalant about training, but in reality, I was extremely nervous. I would definitely not be able to keep up with the Team after having done no physical activity for about a week and three days. Yeah, according to Robin, I had been unconscious for three days after my fight with Devastation. I took a swig of orange juice before walking off to the zeta tubes. One of the great parts about living in the cave is that you can zeta to a destination close to Gotham Academy, and then just walk there. It takes about 1 minute for me to get to school. If M'gann was always going to cook breakfast for me, then I would just sleep in every day.

I took a bite out of my egg and almost gagged. There was so much salt on it, it tasted like I took a gulp of seawater. Oh, God. Scratch that previous thought about M'gann always cooking breakfast. I quickly threw it away and downed the orange juice instead.

Looking around the courtyard, I didn't spot anyone that I knew. So I sat on the ledge of the fountain and took out my phone. Guess I'll be sitting here for ten minutes. I was just in the process of writing a text to Artemis to see if she would get in trouble for having her phone in detention, when a shadow appeared on the pavement in front of me.

"Well, look who it is," An annoyingly deep voice growled at me. I looked up to see, none other than Brady himself, "It's the brat that humiliated me in front of the whole art class." Behind him, he had about five skinny guys with floppy hair were snickering behind him.

"Oh, hi Brayden! I hope you bought some art pencils for today. It would be a shame if you forgot them a second day in a row," I said, examining my nails and acting bored. My father said to always act cool under pressure. But… I couldn't resist it, and I purposely decided to piss him off. What the hell did he think he could do?

"It's Brady," He said through gritted teeth, "And you're going to totally regret what you did yesterday!" He lunged at me, but at the last second, one of his friends held him back.

"Dude, don't you think, like, that's a bad idea? I mean, she's, like, with Kelli and Kyle," The guy said with an extremely deep voice. Did these people try to make their voice that deep? It didn't sound attractive at all; It just sounded like they did drugs their whole life. Well, on second thought, they probably did.

"I don't care, Rocky! She humiliated me in class. Everyone has been talking about it, and now the whole fucking school knows!" Brady snarled, "Now, it's my turn to humiliate her!"

I glanced back at the fountain I was sitting in front of and got this uneasy feeling of insecurity. I didn't feel safe and I felt vulnerable sitting in front of a fountain. I stood up and brushed off my short skirt, slinging my bag over one shoulder.

"Well, Bradley, if you don't mind. I have a class to get going to," I said casually, walking away towards the building.

"IT'S BRADY! And you can't get away that easily!" I heard heavy footsteps heading after me. Oh, God. Was he seriously trying to run at me?

When I heard his footsteps come really close, I casually sidestepped at the last second and stuck my foot out. Brady face planted on the concrete in front of me. The whole courtyard was filled with students and they all were watching. Small laughs were exchanged at the sight of Brady basically eating some nice concrete. He quickly jumped up, face red with anger and embarrassment. I looked around for help or a last resort. I didn't want to expose my fighting skills. To my left, I saw Dick coming out of the building. I locked eyes with Dick, and then he saw Brady getting ready to attack me. Recognition settled in and he immediately started to run over.

"You stupid bit-" Brady started to lunge at me.

"Go fuck yourself," A smooth voice said, stepping in front of me. A sweep of blonde hair obscured my view of a red faced Brady. At first, I thought it was Artemis, coming to save the day so that I wouldn't have to use my martial arts on Brady. But then I recognized the overly-straightened long blonde hair, the extremely short skirt, and a new Chanel backpack.

"W-what? W-why are you sticking up for h-her?" Brady stuttered. His face was so red right now, and he was wearing the hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar expression. Grant and Mike were towering over him on either side.

"Because. She's one of us now. Now go run along and play with yourself," She made shooing motions to him. Okay that comment was just gross. Geez, no one here had any filters.

Well, it worked. Because he quickly stumbled to his feet and then dashed away, but not before shooting me a furious look.

"Bye, Katie!" I shouted to him and waved. I laughed inwardly at my usage of a girl's name this time. I was actually starting to feel bad for the guy. I wasn't usually a bully, but this guy made me want to kill him. And trust me, I was definitely capable of it.

I looked over to the left at where Dick was and saw that he had frozen about halfway to me. He was clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides, like he was unsure of whether to approach me or not. He was glancing between me and Kelli's gang. He locked eyes with me and I nodded, telling him that I was okay and he didn't have to come over. I turned back to Kelli who turned back to me at the same time.

She smiled brightly at me and said, "Are you okay?" Then without giving me a chance to answer she continued, "Don't worry about that pathetic loser. What you do need to worry about is officially becoming like me, Shelby, and Nicole!"

I looked over at Grant and Mike who were standing really close to me on my right. They kept looking at me chest and then down to my legs and then back up to my hair. Grant reached out a hand towards my hair, and I automatically took a step to the left, away from them. What the hell? I kept a straight face and kept staring at Kelli in front of me. But Kelli must have noticed it, because she slapped down Mike's hand before it could also reach my braid.

"Stop it, guys! Obviously Bethany isn't in the mood for that right now," Kelli said, although she was smiling at them. They gave a goofy smile back at her. I wasn't in the mood for what? What was she implying?!

Kelli continued, "So, as I was saying. You need to start, like, fitting in with us a little more. Like, you have the hair and all, but we need to accessorize you by adding some makeup and…" I zoned her out.

I stole a glance at Dick, and he just looked pissed off. His jaw was clenched, his eyebrows were drawn, and his fists were curled beside him and he was glaring at Grant and Mike. I turned back to Kelli, nervously.

"Like, we definitely need to go shopping! Oh my gosh! Let's go shopping after school today! We can buy you some makeup and some really cute bags to wear with our school uniforms!" She had a big smile on her face and she looked really excited. But something was a little off about the invitation. I couldn't place it. I just saw a little glint of something in her eyes when she said the idea.

I took a slight step back, scrambling for an excuse not to go. My instincts had picked up on something and I didn't feel comfortable about it. I heard my father's voice in my head again saying, "Listen to your instincts. If you're going to lie, have a little truth to it. It makes it easier."

I looked directly into Kelli's eyes and forced my voice to be even, "My sister and I are working out at the gym after school today. Sorry," I said without any remorse. Technically, it wasn't really a lie. M'gann said that we had training after school.

Something flashed in Kelli's eyes. Anger? But it was replaced by a plastic bubbliness before I could process it.

"That's fine! Tomorrow then!" Then she sashayed away, with Mike and Grant following her, winking at me as they passed me. I looked over at Dick, who purposely walked in between Mike and Grant. He harshly bumped Mike and Grant's shoulders, causing them to glare at Dick as they kept walking behind Kelli.

"Hey, are you okay?" Dick asked, his blue eyes blazing with concern.

"Yeah. That's kind of become our greeting hasn't it?" I mumbled.

He let out a gentle laugh. The bell rang and he said, "Come on, let's get to Chemistry." He grabbed my hand, leading me through the building and expertly weaving us around the crowded hallways. He would occasionally grin back at me, oblivious to the butterflies that were flying around in my stomach.

I sat by Rose again in art and Algebra II. She was taking Algebra II and she was 13. It was so weird. She would always know the answer, but she would never say it unless no one else knew the answer. I asked her about it and she just said she didn't want to be known as the know-it-all in class if she answered the questions all the time. At lunch, I sat with Dick, Artemis, and Barbara. It took a little coaxing to get Rose to sit with us, too. I introduced them, but Rose seemed like she was in LaLa Land at the table.

"So, how was math?" Dick asked me casually.

"Boring. The teacher goes so slow," I replied in between bites of my sandwich.

"Do you like math?" Dick asked. He sounded serious now.

"I guess. It's one of my strongest subjects. And I like solving the problems."

Dick's eyes lit up, "You should join the mathletes team!"

I stared at him incredulously, "What? Mathletes? Really? Please don't tell me you're on the team."

Artemis immediately answered for him, "Yup. He's the star mathlete on the team. He's actually the captain."

"Rose, Dick. Have you met? Dick, I bet Rose will be even smarter than you when she gets to our age," I teased.

"I don't doubt it," Dick said, smiling at Rose. She blushed and hid her face meekly, "Well, if you don't want to become a mathlete, you can join our gymnastics team. There's a tryout next week," He offered.

"I don't think I can," I said slowly, "I have a lot of… after school activities." I made eye contact with Artemis.

"Actually, I think it would be great for you to join the gymnastics team. I'm on it, too," Artemis told me. Then she whispered when no one was looking, "And it may help with those 'after school activities.'" She had a point. It could definitely up my fighting game, give me more strength, flexibility, and just improve my overall performance in fights.

Then Dick chatted and laughed with Barbara, and Rose read her book on the side. I stared at Barbara intently, trying to figure out what she had that I didn't have and trying not to be jealous over the easy going relationship that they had.

Artemis must have caught me looking because she leaned over and whispered, "Getting jealous, are we?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"What? No!" I could feel the blush creep up my cheeks, "It's not like we had anything anywase."

"I saw you glaring. You know, it took me a while to get used to her, too. When I moved to Gotham Academy, Dick was my only friend here. And then I met Barbara and it felt like they always fit together perfectly and I was the third wheel," She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. That last comment about them fitting together perfectly made my stomach drop. I slouched in my chair and wallowed in my own self pity.

"But they've known each other since they were kids, so the fact that they get along so well is understandable. They were probably just childhood sweethearts. Nothing more."

"Oh, really? The sweethearts thing is not making me feel better at all," I said glumly.

She ignored me and continued, "You know what? Dick used to look at Barbara with the looks he gives you now," Artemis added. That broke me out of my daze.

"What? What looks?" I asked quietly, glancing over at Dick to make sure he wasn't listening. Dick and Barbara were laughing about some stupid inside joke that they had. UGH.

"Come on, how do you not notice the looks he gives you?" Artemis whispered back seriously.

"What looks?!"

"The looks."

"Answer the damn question, Artemis!" I demanded, punching her arm.

"Okay, okay! Geez," Artemis rubbed her arm. Then she dropped her voice even lower. She said seriously, "He gives those intense, dreamy looks. They look really longing like a… like a…" She scratched her chin and looked at the ceiling, trying to think. Then she snapped her fingers, "Oh! A longing look, like a dog!"

My stomach fell.

"Seriously, Artemis? Did you just make that whole thing up? Were you playing me just now?" I asked impatiently. I was getting a little irritated at this game.

"Well, I was kidding about the dog part. But he really does give you those intense and dreamy looks."

"I think it's just the eyes. They're so bright that they make it seem really intense. I don't think he looks at me that way."

"Stop making excuses, just accept the truth."

"I don't believe it. That's not enough evidence to prove that he is interested in me."

"Damn, you scientific thinkers! Can't you just believe it without the facts?" She said loudly, throwing her hands up, exasperated.

"RRRIIIIIINNNGGGG"

The bell rang and everyone started pouring out of the cafeteria, Dick and Barbara still laughing with each other. God, it made me so angry.