GUYS I AM SOOOO FREAKING SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR ABOUT 5 AND A HALF YEARS. I APOLOGIZE DEEPLY PLEASE ACCEPT IT. I HAD AP TESTING AND SHITTY SCHOOL. OKAY COOL. If you guys want me to start posting like little posts updating you guys on how my writing is going so far whenever I don't post for a while, please do tell me. Okay cool.

Now back to the story, you impatient readers, you.

Bethany Ford POV:

I was very anxious at school the next day. Artemis has a right to know, right? I mean, I should be telling her these things because she's my best friend. But Dick is acting so casual about it. So does that mean we aren't dating or something? What are we, now that we've kissed? Well, maybe since Dick is acting so nonchalant about it, that means I can tell Artemis. Or did he want it a secret?

I groaned in frustration. Why were boys so difficult? I had never ever had any relationship with a boy, much less ever kissed one.

"What's wrong?" Dick murmured in my ear. He continued to trace light circles on my shoulder. We were laying on the wide steps again, basking in the warm sun.

"Nothing," I snuggled into his chest a little more. What did this mean that we were? I knew that some boys just liked to kiss and that was just an "in the moment" thing. But Dick didn't seem like that kind of guy. But he didn't talk about it afterwards. So do we just pretend like it never happened?

Before I could continue over examining things, a shadow blocked out our sun.

"Excuse me? Helloooo? Bethany!" A pale and perfectly manicured hand snapped twice in front of my face. How rude! I thought.

Dick and I slowly got up, but I noticed that he kept his hand on the step behind me.

"Yes, Kelli?" I asked irritated.

"What do you think you're doing?" She put her hands on her hips and her minion friends, Nicole and Shelby, mimicked. The male part of her clan was no where to be seen. I hadn't seen Grant or Mike since the day of that very... ahem, unfortunate party incident.

"Ummm, we're sitting on the steps," I said it like it was so obvious she was blind.

"No. Like, what do you think you're doing with him?" She said the word like it was disgusting to her mouth.

Something in me boiled and I stood up to match her height. I crossed my arms in front of me and matched her even glare.

"Is there something wrong with that?" I demanded.

She leaned in closer to whisper to me, but made sure to be loud enough for Dick to hear, "You can't associate with... vermin."

I sensed Dick stiffen behind me.

I clenched my fists. How dare she? His father is fucking Bruce Wayne, the founder of this whole damn school!

"Do you even know who his father is?" I growled through clenched teeth. Dick stood up and placed a warning hand on my back, calming me down.

She waved her hands at me as if she didn't even notice how mad I was.

"Of course I know who is father is! It's Bruce Wayne!" But then smirked at me, "But of course you would already know about Bruce Wayne, wouldn't you?"

"What do you mean? Everyone knows who he is."

"People talk, Bethany," She inched closer to me, the smirk getting bigger, like she had caught me doing something naughty, "There's been talk that you, like, actually went home with him yesterday," She nudged her head in Dick's direction.

My face heated a little and I sputtered out an excuse, "What's wrong with going to a friend's house?" She didn't know about the kiss, right? Did she? Nah, stop over thinking everything everyone says.

Her smile was like honey, "It's just a little curious. After all, no one from school has ever been inside the Wayne house before. Except for his close friends, but even then, they don't get rides in his car. Are you guys, like, together or something?"

I didn't know what to say. Were we? Was I supposed to lie? Do I make up an excuse? And how did she know all this?

"I don't see why this is any of your concern, Clarissa," Dick said coolly.

"Don't call me that," Kelli snapped at Dick.

"But isn't that your full name?" Dick raised his eyebrows in fake shock.

"Don't cross me, Grayson. You may think that you're some little -" Kelli started towards him.

I stepped in the middle, "Don't! He's Bruce Wayne's son. If you do anything even remotely close to hurting him, you may find yourself unable to come back to school tomorrow. Now wouldn't that be such a shame?" I warned, and I couldn't help the sarcasm that dripped at the end.

She stopped her approach to Dick and looked down at me, the smirk returning, "Ha! You think that would actually happen? Do you know who my dad is?"

I blinked.

"No, didn't think so. Maybe you would know if you, like, ever hung out with me, which, I repeat, you never do," She crossed her arms.

"I think that we should get going to-" Dick started in a firm voice.

"My father is Julius Stonebridge."

I blinked. What now? Who the fuck was that.

I must have looked really confused because she uncrossed her arms and looked at me, a little annoyed.

"You know, the Julius Keaton Stonebridge. Co-director of this entire school," She looked at me incredulously.

Well that makes sense. All the wealth that she had, and then the fact that she was able to run the school without even lifting a finger.

"But don't worry, I'm not mad at you," She flipped her overly straightened blonde hair over her shoulder.

"For doing what?" I was so confused. Was she mad at me or not? First she was pounding my face into the concrete, now she was on my side?

She totally ignored my question and continued as if I hadn't talked at all. As if the entire conversation hadn't even happened.

"Now you know that I'm actually on your side. I'm trying to help you," She flashed a plastic smile at me and took a step towards me so that we were really close.

"Ummm, how?" I held my ground, but leaned a little into Dick for comfort. She gave me the chills. Now that she was closer to me, I finally realized how much taller she was than me. Almost a whole head taller.

"I'm just, like, trying to help your reputation," She gave a little pout and batted her eyelashes, "You just have so much potential."

Her hand shot out and fingered a strand of my straight hair. I was frozen from her touch.

"Take for example, your hair," She spoke a little softly, "It's, like, so silky and straight. And what color is this? It's like a dark brown, but not quite black. A unique color," Then she looked at my face and examined it.

She moved her hand from my hair to reach for my face. But before she could, Dick cleared his throat, breaking the trance I felt like I was under. She dropped her hand back down.

"Bethany, I think we should be heading in. The bell is going to ring soon," His voice was hard as he grabbed my elbow and led me away, my feet stumbling on the stairs. He moved his arm to wrap around my waist and pulled me close.

"What happened back there?" He whispered in my ear. His lips tickled my earlobe, "You froze."

"I have no idea," I continued to look blankly down the hallway. We walked slowly, and it seemed like everyone in the hallway parted for us, "For a second I thought she was gonna rape me," I half joked.

He chuckled, his lips grazing my ear again. I turned my head to look at his startling perfect eyes. He looked at me and leaned a little closer, not losing eye contact.

But that's when I noticed what was so weird.

"Dick," I whispered, "It's not loud in the hallway." And he immediately understood.

He leaned away from me and straightened up. And I jumped a couple inches away from him.

Most of the hallway really had parted to let us through. And some were gaping and staring. Most guys were whispering and looking us up and down and almost all the girls were glaring at me.

We kept walking, like we didn't even notice the fact that the hallway was almost completely quiet. I caught some whispers that made my stomach churn.

"I heard..."

"Yeah, that's Bethany..."

"...Yesterday, she left with Dick..."

"... Dating..."

"I wonder what they did last night...haha..."

"I saw her face off with Kelli this morning..."

"What about Grant?"

That last one had me getting really nervous. What about Grant? He doesn't actually like me, right? And what about me dating Dick? I didn't even know if we were dating!

"Dick..." I whispered softly, hoping that his vigilante ears would pick it up, "What's going on?"

He took my hand and squeezed it, telling me everything was fine. Then he whisked me through the rest of the hallways and shoved me into a janitor's closet and locked the door behind us. He turned to look at me, an intense look in his eyes.

My heart was pounding so loud, I was sure he could hear it. Whether my heart was pounding because of what happened in the hallway, or because of the fact that I was with Dick in a very small, dimly lit janitor's closet, I didn't know.

"What happened out there?" I asked softly. My finger found my necklace and I started fiddling with it nervously, "Why are people talking about me?" I felt sad. This is what it was like at my old school. Except I didn't have a friend to go through it with.

Dick was immediately in front of me, both hands on either side of my face. He kissed my forehead.

"Please stop sounding so scared. I can't stand it," He murmured, "They're only talking about us because they think that we're together."

My heart raced even faster. My hands found his chest and I looked up at him. His dazzling blue eyes and handsome features always took my breath away. It made it hard to ask what I really wanted to know. I had so many questions about us, but I didn't know how to phrase it without it sounding awkward. I had no experience with this sort of thing.

"Dick?"

"Mmm?" He nuzzled his forehead with mine.

"What are we?"

He paused and then leaned back to look at my eyes. He smiled like it was a joke, "You'll have to be more specific than that, sweetie."

My heart fluttered at the word 'sweetie.'

"You kissed me yesterday," I stated lamely.

His smile got a little more mischievous, "Yeah, I sure did. How'd you like it?" He leaned in a little closer, eyeing my mouth. But before he could get too close, I leaned away.

"Does that mean that we're... you know..." I tried to make him understand what I was trying to say.

"What?" His eyes sparkled in the dim light. They flitted back and forth between my eyes and my mouth.

I sighed, "Dick, I have never been close to anyone before. So I don't know how this stuff is supposed to work," I looked at the ground, afraid of rejection, "Are we... like-"

I couldn't finish my question, because suddenly his lips were pressed on mine and my whole world melted away. My stomach started fluttering and my heart started beating into overdrive. What was this boy doing to me? He was pulling at heart strings that I didn't even know existed. Strings and emotions that had never been touched before. He stirred up feelings that I had never known about. The kiss was slow and sweet. It ended much too early, but it still left tingling electricity racing along my lips.

I looked up at Dick, to see if he was affected as much as me. His eyes blazed and he was breathing heavily as he said, "Yeah. We are."

By the time Dick and I were cozied up in the back of the Advanced Digital Imaging class, just about half of the school had noticed that we were being much closer than other days. Sure, we held hands and talked a lot, but somehow, people could tell that it was different between us. Just wait until they found out that I was actually living with him, too...

When the bell for lunch finally rang, Dick and I were out the door together in a heartbeat. Holding hands, of course. Even though some people were looking at us, we still had to maneuver our way around. He held my hand firmly, rubbing circular patterns on the back of my hand. We stayed close together.

When we got to our table, lunch in hand, Artemis, Rose, and Barbara were looking at us expectantly. Well, except for Rose. She had this bright expression on her face.

"Explain yourselves," Artemis demanded when we sat down. Dick released my hand and I immediately missed his warmth.

"What do you mean?" I asked, grabbing my fork. I put a little bit of lasagna in my mouth, tasting it. Of course, it tasted good. I mean, we're at a very prestigious and rich school. What did I expect. I shoveled another forkful into my mouth.

"People have been talking about you and Dick actually dating,"

I accidentally swallowed my lasagne without chewing. Next to me, Dick choked on his water. I looked at him to see what he would say and caught him glancing back at me. Underneath the table, Dick grasped my hand comfortingly.

"Well," He paused looking at me with a content smile, like he had finally won a prize. Everyone impatiently leaned in to hear what he would say next.

"Well?" Artemis demanded when Dick hadn't talked for another few seconds.

He turned to beam back at the group, "I guess you heard right."

Artemis got up and started shouting at me about why I didn't tell her. Rose sat back like she had finally gotten an answer to a question right. And Barbara's face went from shock, to a small sad smile. Was she upset?

"Why didn't you tell me? You could have texted me or something! Like, how hard could it be to just pull out your phone and tap the screen a couple times? They make technology for a reason you know!" Artemis was leaning so far over the table that she was yelling in my face. But she was smiling. She was happy. Then she whispered, "You know I'm never gonna stop making fun of you for this..."

I grimaced. I knew she would.

I looked over at Rose and said, "Why do you look so... content?"

She leaned forward, a little sparkle in her eye as she said, "Once you guys sat down, I could only guess. Dick wasn't smirking like he's just pranked someone, and Bethany had those lovey dovey eyes."

I looked at Barbara to see what was up. I was expecting her to get kind of mad, but instead, she looked only smirked.

"Well, it's about time! The hormones between you two have been off the charts!" She gave a sly grin and her and Artemis snickered.

We talked and laughed (and threw food at Artemis) and when the bell rang, we all got up to go to our separate classes. Barbara went to whatever computer class she was in (did you know that she is also a huge whiz with computers like Dick?!) and Rose went to her AP science class. Dick, Artemis, and I all headed downstairs to the lecture hall for our World History Honors class.

Before Barbara could fully leave our group, I snagged her arm and pulled her to the side. Dick and Artemis stood, patiently waiting down the hallway for me.

"Hey," I said, "Are you okay with Dick and I being together?"

She gave a puzzled look.

"No, I mean, like," I took a deep breath, "I know that you and Dick have had some history together and stuff but I just wanted to know how you were feeling and -"

"Bethany."

"Yeah?"

"Please stop babbling. Of course I'm happy for you."

I let out a breath.

"I'm just glad that he's finally got someone in his life that's good. If it was anyone else, I would probably bash their heads in. But it's you. And you guys are perfect."

"Thanks," I said. We hugged and I ran off to catch up with Dick and Artemis.

"What was that all about?" Dick eyed me carefully.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I smirked at him and grabbed his hand.

I'm glad Barbara didn't feel angry or jealous. But even if she hadn't approved of us, I wouldn't have given up Dick anyways.

"In addition to spreading religions and cultures along the Silk Roads, one of the most important things the Mongols spread was disease, especially the Black Death. The Black Death was blah and blah and it also blah..." I tuned out my stupid History teacher again. My history teacher, Mr. Rease was the most biased and unfair dick of a teacher I had ever met. And I had met a bunch of dick teachers in my life, trust me.

Beside me, Dick had his back turned to me to face Artemis because they were arguing over how often Mr. Rease cleaned his beard, so I was thoroughly bored.

My eyes roamed around the room in a desperate attempt to distract myself. When I had finally gotten bored at looking at my stuck up classmates, I started examining my cuticles.

Then, suddenly, I caught movement from the corner of my eye. I looked out the door and saw a familiar face that sent chills running up my spine and I recalled the bruises and blood from the last time I had encountered him.

The boy with raven black hair disguised as a schoolboy looked over at me as he passed the windowed door and he smiled a sinister grin, flashing his sharp teeth. He stopped walking, his slim figure a looming death in the window. He lifted a slender hand and motioned for me to come outside. A little red spark danced across his fingertips as he taunted me. Near me, a girl's papers flew out from her binder and a pencil stabbed her arm. She let out a cry of pain and quickly dislodged the led from her skin.

My eyes widened and I looked back at the boy in the window of the door. He let a little sinister grin slip onto his face and a red glint flashed in his malicious eyes. And just like that, he turned and walked away, a familiar orange cat following at his heels.

It was a warning. If I didn't follow, then more people would get hurt, but worse.

"Klarion," I growled.

Heads up, next chapter is gonna get heated... Just to dangle that over your heads because I'm a very evil author. *insert sinister laugh*

And also, starting now, the book is finally alive and all the plots tie together. Everything will finally make sense at the end. This is like the turning point of the book plot! heheheee...

And just to brag, I'm about to go watch the new Marvel movie: Avengers Age of Ultron.

Stay traught, cuz idk when I'll update next... :)