Location: Mount Justice

Date: Aug 13th

Time: 13: 52

Emmy was in the gym when Batman called her to the mission briefing room. She was sweaty, tired, in need of a shower, and a little apprehensive about the one-on-one meet. She threw a small towel around her neck and walked up to the Bat. She hadn't accidentally killed someone in the last month and then forgotten about it had she?

"It's time to discuss schooling options," Batman started. Emmy's shoulders drooped. On second thought, it might be better if he were here to punish her for a murder. Batman continued, "All three of you qualify for a full-scholarship to Gotham Aca-"

"Absolutely not. No Gotham. Ever. It's too close to Bludhaven, and they could run into a certain criminal there," Emmy crossed her arms. She would have thought that Bats would know better than to suggest that to her.

"The League has advanced technology for identity hiding," Bats explained. "A simple necklace or watch, and you three will be unrecognizable."

"No," Emmy shook her head. "We won't be hiding from Sparks and Sportsmaster forever. I don't want Hunter and Sage to have to disguise their faces for however long and be known to their friends as different people. Next option."

"Happy Harbor. Superboy and Miss Martian will be attending the high school there next month. It is closest to the mountain, but the youngest grade the middle school accepts is fourth."

Emmy frowned. That wouldn't work. Hunter was only a first grader. She had gotten Sage back in school as quickly as she could after they became 'orphans', but Hunter was only one at the time. She and Hunter had spent the first four years after the fire together. When Sage was at school, Emmy would read to Hunter and train when he took naps. Deaf babies and children cried less often than hearing ones, and she could annihilate a punching bag without any concerns about waking the child next to her. Hunter could probably skip a grade or two, Emmy had spent her days signing complicated books to him for a reason, but fourth grade would be too much of a stretch. He had gone to school for the first-time last year with kindergarten. He loved it, but there was still the issue of him being the only deaf kid.

School would be different for him now though. The cochlear implant had been activated for a week. Hunter was giggling about farts and burps for the first time. He watched Emmy train just to hear the songs she was singing, and he got such a huge smile on his face every time he heard his name said out loud that Emmy kept almost crying. He and Sage had been watching Transformers on repeat, to Megan and Superboy's slight annoyance. Hunter's voice was low and throaty from lack of use, but he was excited about his speech therapy classes, and he had recently started imitating car and siren noises to the best of his ability.

Emmy was ecstatic that he would have more options and a hopefully easier life now, but when he was older, she would make sure he knew he had the option of not using his implant if he didn't want it. She didn't want to be one of those people who pushed hearing onto him or made him feel like he was broken or less-than for being deaf. She had just read that cochlear's worked better the younger you were, so she wanted to give Hunter the chance to hear early. And Emmy had already decided that she would keep signing to him long after he mastered verbal speech. The doctor said Hunter would eventually get to a place where he could hear anything someone said if they were looking directly at him and catch a decent amount of background noise as well.

Sage just needed a steady place where she could make friends and learn. Hunter was the one who would need extra help. Emmy bit her lip. "What town has a Zeta Tube with schools for all three of us that will be integrative for Hunter? He can hear a lot of things now, but he won't be verbal for a while."

Batman pulled an image up from his hologlove. "Central City has a school that would work. There is a Keystone high and middle school, and their elementary school has a program for blind or deaf children who need more support."

Emmy glanced at the screen. Central City was where she landed after stopping the asteroid. It had seemed clean and safe enough. "Fine. We'll go there."

"Classes started there on Monday."

"Then we probably should have had this conversation sooner." Batman was not amused by her sass. "It'll be fine. They'll have it easier as new kids because people will already know each other and come to talk to them. Plus, I doubt they missed anything important in one week."

"I'll get you enrolled then. You'll start this Monday."

Location: Mount Justice

Date: Aug 16th

Time: 06:00

Emmy hit her alarm clock aggressively as it blared. She had been dreading this. Who did Batman think he was? He wasn't her father, and he wasn't her legal guardian. He didn't just get to throw her in a school and have that be the end of discussion.

Sage and Hunter needed to go to school. She didn't. It would just be a waste of her time. She agreed to try for one semester, but maybe she could get around that. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Those were Batman's words. She could flunk out maybe? How long would that take? Maybe try getting expelled instead?

Emmy pushed the thoughts from her mind and got out of bed. She did a quick workout and showered. She threw a towel on her hair and checked the time. It was almost seven now, so she woke Hunter. He started brushing his teeth and picked out his outfit for the day. Sage was already awake and dancing through an overwhelming miasma of pre-teen perfume. They had finally gone shopping on Saturday. New clothes, backpacks, shoes, some jewelry, some toys, and boba tea from the food court. The black card from Batman footed the bill. She wasn't entirely sure where the money was coming from, but she had her suspicions. She was 92% sure she knew the secret identities of the main Justice League members. Batman's ability to throw around money like it was nothing was yet another point in the "I think Batman is Bruce Wayne" category. That was food for thought for later though.

She put on one of her new outfits, adding some mascara and light red lip tint. She frowned at the mirror. Sage had begged to do Emmy's hair, so now her waves were shinier and more controlled than normal. She looked like a typical teenage girl. What? Was she supposed to be normal now? Batman puts her in High School and suddenly the last 16 years don't matter, and she'll stop worrying about keeping her family safe and start worrying about whether or not Alex from third period thinks she's cute?

Emmy huffed and glared at the mirror. Focus on the kids. Get them to school. One problem at a time, East. She made egg burritos with salsa for breakfast. Zoning out while Sage and Hunter bantered about all the friends they were going to make today. She looked at her watch after cleaning the dishes. 8:10. She passed them the lunches she made last night as they went to the hanger. Batman had a Zeta Tube garage 10 minutes from the Elementary school. They'd drive through it and go to the first school campus. The three schools were on the same road, but a couple minutes away from each other. Sage and Hunter were bursting at the seams, excited to see people their age again. Emmy focused on driving, keeping her mouth shut and both hands on the wheel.

All three sections of the Keystone schools started at 9. So, Emmy would have to stagger drop off's each day. It took 10 minutes to drop Hunter at the elementary school office and sign the late entry paperwork for him. 15 minutes for Sage at the middle school. Then she was driving down the street to the high school, feeling like she was heading toward her own demise. How was this even supposed to work? Be a hero on the weekends and let any Codes between 9am-3:30pm Monday through Friday go unanswered? That was bullshit. She wasn't like the other teens on the team. They chose to be heroes. She was chosen. She had a responsibility to a whole sector, not the inside of a classroom.

She pulled into a random parking space and looked at the high school. It had grey cement walls, looked like a prison but with more windows, and had huge red lettering on the front saying, "Keystone High School". She huffed. It was only 8:50. She cranked Kesha's 'Woman' up and let the song play to the end before turning off the car and banging her head against the back of her seat. She was a motherfucking woman. And yet here she was, looking at a high school like some person who hadn't been fighting on the streets their entire life. There was a sign on the stick in front of her saying faculty parking spot. She scoffed.

She narrowed her eyes at the new black backpack she was supposed to be using. She left it in the car. She stuck in her earbuds and walked into the building, blasting 'Play with Fire' by Sam Tinnesz loud enough to cause some hearing problems in forty years. It took a few minutes to find the main office. The halls were full of teens giggling and complaining about the start of their second week. Emmy avoided a few questioning glances as she opened the main office door. There was an old woman with a grey bun, pink glasses, and a blue pant suit behind the desk. The principal's office was to the left, door open. She pulled the earbud out of her right ear.

"Do you need something, Dear?" The woman smiled from her computer over her glasses.

"Emarald East. New student."

The principal's head stuck out of her office before the secretary could respond.

"Emerald!" The principal's voice was overly cheery. She was a middle-aged woman. Bright pink dress with an open baby pink cardigan over it. Short, frizzy blonde hair. Brown eyes. Not ugly, not pretty. Not young, not old. She was wearing rings, earrings, a necklace, and a brooch that all housed large enamel apples. That's too much for my taste. "I'm Principal Melinda Gibbs. It is an honor to meet you!"

The woman practically hopped in front of Emerald.

"Why?" Emmy asked suspiciously.

"Well," Gibbs hesitated. "Any new student endorsed by Bruce Wayne is brilliant addition to our school. Your record is also beyond impressive."

My record? The hell does that mean? And Bruce Wayne endorsed? Gimme a break, Batman.

"I'm an impressive person," Emmy deadpanned.

The principal blinked at her before laughing loudly and sending the secretary a look to join in.

"Well, you're a little late," her blonde curls bounced as she checked her watch before shoving a folder with Emmy's class schedule it into the girls' arms. "But that actually works out perfectly! Great for introducing you to your first period English class. I'll show you where the room is. Actually, I will mark out where all your classes are on this map. One moment."

Emmy found herself disliking the perky principal with her apple jewelry and nasally laugh. She increased the volume of her music in her left ear. The principal was prattling on about how great the school was and something or the other. Emmy glanced at the slightly crumpled class schedule page in the folder. English, AP Chemistry, American History, Lunch, Gym, AP Calculus BC, and Honors Physics. Emmy sighed. Great.

Location: Keystone High School

Date: Aug 16th

Time: 09:15

Wally was beyond bored and class had only started 15 minutes ago. Mrs. Espinosa was hyping up the first official book of the year, The Great Gatsby. They had been doing the play A Raisin in the Sun for the last week. They still had a few more days to finish covering it, but Espinosa had decided to set up the Gatsby story before they started reading it. She was talking about themes and tones and symbolism and other things that made Wally's brain sag into the dark abyss of mental stagnation like a deflating balloon. He wasn't terrible at English, he just struggled with a class that was so aggressively subjective. How could there be right or wrong answers when most of the questions were open to feelings and interpretation? He was counting the picoseconds until the bell rang and he could move on to AP Chem. At least then any talk of green would refer to copper or barium in flame and not a light at the end of a mopey rich guy's pier.

He was counting the tiles on the ceiling for the 83rd time when Brandon turned around from the seat in front of him. Brandon was 5 feet 10 inches of gangly limbs, poofy hair, and innuendos. He and Wally met on the playground in third grade and had been inseparable ever since. Dick was Wally's best friend now, the bond over top-secret hero missions kick-started their friendship and gave it a depth that really couldn't be match by someone who was a civilian, not that he would or could ever tell Brandon that. But Wally still loved Brandon like a brother and considered him a close second in the friend category, and he was definitely number one in Central City.

"Hey, Walls," Brandon whispered after making sure that Mrs. Espinosa wasn't looking their way, "Did you hear about the hot new girl?"

Wally immediately perked up at the question. "No? Who is she?"

"Don't know," Brandon leaned toward the redhead. "Word is, she showed up today before the first bell in some hot rod, parked in a faculty spot, and then went into the office." Brandon's brown eyes flickered toward their teacher again. "When you were in the bathroom before class, I overheard Todd saying she had green hair and a bangin' ass." The giant poof of brown hair bounced toward Todd, a Senior linebacker who was taking this English class for the third time.

Wally quirked an eyebrow. A hot new girl would be nice. Their school was decently big, but most of them had grown up with each other since elementary or middle school, so there were not a lot of new options. Plus, after the breakup with Stacy last year, she had basically poisoned the school dating pool for him. A new face around here would definitely be nice. And New Girl wouldn't have any preconceived notions about him being a 'geek' or 'nerd', so he could put his patent-pending Wall-man moves of her. He smirked to himself. If she drove a hot rod and had green hair, she was probably a hottie who was also a bit of a rebel. This day just got slightly less boring.

The loud clicks of Principal Gibbs's heels neared the room, and the door opened a second later. The principal entered in a blaze of unwelcomed perkiness and frizzy-haired smiles.

"Hello, my lovely pupils!" the principal's eyes shut from the wattage of her smile and she missed the exasperated eyerolls the students sent each other. She turned to Mrs. Espinosa and quietly murmured, "Hi Lisa, I have that new student with me, the one I was telling you about earlier." Wally sat up a little straighter, thankful for his slightly elevated hearing. Could it be the new girl?

Mrs. Espinosa smiled and looked out the door. "Class, we have a new student entering today, and I want you to give her a big Keystone High welcome," she waved at whoever was in the hallway. "Come on in, Dear. Don't be shy."

Thirty pairs of eyes looked toward the door as the new girl walked in. Wally almost choked on his spit. What the hell was Emmy doing here?! He blinked a few times rapid fire, trying to get the image of the girl in front of the class to leave, but she was still there. Seriously? It wasn't enough that he had to deal with her attitude on the team? He had to see her at school now too? The only teammates he would want to be in class with would be Rob or Megan. Damnit why couldn't he have gotten Megan? Sweet, sweet Megan who cooked him treats without sassing him the whole time.

Well, I guess Emmy makes most of them. But still! Megan has gotten a lot better lately so-

He frowned and refocused on the girl at hand. Emmy was standing near the door, with the half-lidded eyes of someone regretting their life choices as she stared out the giant windows separating the teens from freedom. She was wearing a red, long sleeve V-neck cropped top, high-waisted jean shorts that showed off her legs, and black combat boots. He could see an earbud on her left side. The white earphone cord disappearing into her back pocket. Her hair was its typical wavy but the green pieces around her face seemed curlier than they usually did. Her lips looked fuller and redder than normal too, and there was something different about her eyes...was she wearing makeup?

"Dude," Brandon hissed to him. 'That's her. We got H-N-G in our class. Score!"

Wally glared at the back of Brandon's head. No. Not score. Very much not score. This could not be happening.

Emmy was zoning out at the window. It was only August. Still technically summer, and this was the cleanest and brightest town she had ever seen. The grass was her type of green, and there were flowers all around the school grounds. She could also see the road from this angle. Maybe if she made a distraction, she could jump out the window and-

"Yes," Gibbs brought her back. "This is Emerald East. Your new classmate. I trust you will all welcome her with the open arms that we are so famous for. We'll be the key-stone to opening Emmy's heart." The principal nudged her into the center of the room slightly and it took all Emmy's willpower not to hit the woman. She is so lucky that willpower is the one thing I have in abundance.

"I'm Mrs. Espinosa," the English teacher smiled at her. "Why don't you introduce yourself to the class and tell us a fun fact about you?" Emmy glanced at the teacher unimpressed before her eyes went out the window again. Fun fact? What was this first grade?

"I'm Emmy," she took a disheartened breath before continuing her deadpanned introduction. "Fun fact about me is that I haven't been to school since fifth grade, so I really don't want to be here."

A few snickers bounced around the classroom, the principal and teacher faltered slightly before the nasally guffaw of the principal returned. The song shifted to an increased bass version of 'Love is a Bitch' by Two Feet.

"Oh, you are such a funny one, Emerald," Emmy sent the woman a death glare out of the corner of her eye. "Enjoy your day! I'll check in later." The clack of her wobbling heels receded while English teacher gestured at the class.

"We don't allow phones or music during class, so would you like to take out your headphones?"

Emmy shrugged. "I'm good." More chuckles. Man, these kids were laugh-starved.

"Oh-kay," Mrs. Espinosa's smile faltered before she pointed toward the left of the classroom. "Well, we were just discussing our next reading material. I'll let you know what you need to catch up on from last week after class, but why don't you take that empty seat next to Wally in the back row for now?"

Emmy raised an eyebrow. Wally? Had she heard that wrong? She lowered her music a little and looked at the classroom for the first time, shocked to see familiar green eyes glaring at her. Emmy's eyebrows furrowed, but she took the seat on Wally's right. She could feel some eyes on her as she went. Wally wasn't looking at her, but the scrawny guy in front of him sent her a pathetic attempt at a suave wink. Great. High school. Just what she was missing in her life. As soon as Mrs. Espinosa turned to write something on the board, Wally wheeled on her.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed before he said anything.

"Me?" he looked offended and his eyebrows raised. "This is my school! What the hell are you doing here?"

He had been a little too loud at the end. "Please refrain from introducing yourself to Emmy until after class, Wally," the teacher sent him a look. He slumped into his seat when giggles and jeers entered the room, avoiding the slightly confused look Brandon was throwing between him and Emmy.

Emmy glanced at Wally. He was in jeans, red sneakers, a long sleeve yellow shirt, and had a dark red t-shirt button down open over the yellow shirt. She hated when guys did that. I mean come on, if they're not going to show off their arms, why bother lifting weights? Then again, she did have a thing for arms, so maybe that was just her and some girls like the layered look.

The teacher started writing some nonsense about Fitzgerald on the whiteboard and Emmy huffed. She did not like The Great Gatsby. It was probably one of three books in her collection that she had only read once. It wasn't horrible, but it was dull to her in a thousand different ways. Of course, that would be the first book she got assigned after six years without class. Wally was sending her angry, questioning looks that she returned out of the corner of her eye. He seemed to get an idea, because he abruptly pulled out his phone and started texting underneath the desk. She felt a buzz in her back pocket. He looked at her expectantly. She sighed and put her phone between her legs under the desk.

Wally- Annoying redhead:

What are you doing here?

Me:

BM said I had to try school. Keystone is the one that worked out best for Sage and Hunter.

Wally subtly looked under his desk at the phone screen before glaring at her and typing again.

'Out of all the schools in America, you have to go to mine?'

It was her turn to frown at him. 'Trust me. I'm not exactly thrilled by the idea of seeing your face even more than I already do.'

'Please. Showing up at my school wearing my colors? You clearly have it bad, Green Stalker.'

Emmy glanced at him again. Crap. His dark red outer shirt was the same color as her V-neck.

'You don't own red, Kid Foolish. And I'm not wearing any yellow.'

'I might as well own red. No one looks as good in it as I do.'

He sent her a cocky look and moved his hands up and down his torso in a "see?" movement.

'You look like the rejected Ronald McDonald prototype.'

Wally forced his lips not to twitch. That one was a little funny. 'You look like the unmarried aunt who gets drunk on eggnog at every Christmas party.'

Emmy sent him a look that clearly indicated she didn't believe him. 'You mean I look like the only one still enjoying life instead of having a Peaked-In-High-School husband who has to set his beer gut on my back during sex?'

Wally coughed to hide a laugh before his anger at the interloper returned. 'You are such a liar. What happened to, 'I just need Robin to look something up for me and then you'll never see me again'?'

'Hey, I didn't ask to get recruited. Maybe if you three had done a better job, BM wouldn't have felt it was necessary to include me.'

'Look, Emerald. This is my turf. I have seniority, so I stay, and you leave.'

'You can't even drive yet how can you have seniority?'

'If you were as fast as I am you wouldn't have a car either.'

'I think you meant to say, 'If I were as young as you are, I wouldn't have a car either'.'

"You're only six months older than I am," Wally snapped at her out loud. All eyes turned to the redhead.

"Mr. West," Espinosa snapped. "Since you seem so eager to talk, why don't you explain why Fitzgerald chose to have Nick narrate the story rather than Gatsby himself?"

"Uhh," Wally hesitated, glaring at Emmy when she snickered at him.

"If you don't know the answer," she looked at him over her glasses, "then perhaps you should spend less time comparing ages with Miss East and more time paying attention."

He slumped even further into his seat to Emmy's amusement. Emmy put her second earbud in and zoned out for the rest of class. Before too long, a ringing bell cut through her song and everyone was standing up. She slowly left her seat, but within seconds Wally grabbed her arm and pulled her after him. Emmy ducked out of the classroom behind his body before Ramirez could give her the homework she had missed. She tugged her arm out of his grip to open her folder.

"I just don't understand why it has to be my school," he frowned down at her, ignoring Brandon's confused glance as the teammates left the classroom.

"I don't understand why it has to be school at all," Emmy huffed, her anger directed at the Bat instead of the boy in front of her. She had a veritable degree from the School of Green Lantern Corps. This would just be a distraction.

"What do you mean?" Wally asked while starting to walk to his next class.

"I don't want to be here either, Wall-man," she huffed and looked at her schedule paper. Wally made a strangled noise next to her and stole the paper.

"Why are you in AP Chem with me? And why is your locker so close to mine?" he snapped at her.

She snatched the schedule back. At least she wouldn't have to figure out where her next class was. "I don't know. I didn't pick any of this." She leaned in slightly. "Bats said I had to try school and 'if it didn't work out, it didn't work out'." Her air quotes were caustic. He wished she would do those in front of Batman sometime so he could witness the man break his one rule and kill her.

"What qualifies as not work out?" Wally asked, turning down the science hall.

Emmy perked up a bit. "Maybe getting suspended? Wait. No. Getting expelled," she whirled on him with a new spark in her eye. "What does a girl have to do around here to get expelled?"

He smirked at her as they entered the classroom. "Let me think about it."

Location: Keystone High School

Date: Aug 16th

Time: 10:26

Halfway through class, and Emmy was surprised to find that she was actually a little interested. She liked Chemistry, so she supposed it would make sense that she would take the earbuds out for once. The professor was an overweight man with gravity-defying salt and pepper hair and thin silver wire glasses. He had a gap in his front teeth and way more freckles than Wally. It must be early in the curriculum because they were only talking about nomenclature. He spent a couple minutes drawing structures on the board. They were mainly hydrocarbons with a few typical functional groups.

"Alright, New Girl," Emmy raised an eyebrow at the callout and the other 30 or so students who turned to look at her. "This is an AP class, so it's not easy to jump in even one week late. Why don't you come up and show us if you belong here or not?"

Wally snickered at her, but she squared her shoulders and walked to the front of the classroom. "Challenge accepted, Old Man."

There were only six structures drawn on the board. She took a step back to see them all so she could get the answers at once. The naming rules came to her mind. Closest substituent to the end, longest carbon branch is the base, list alphabetically, etc. She stepped up and started drawing out the names with the purple marker while she said them out loud.

"And this last one is 1,3-butadiene," she finished, passing the marker back to the teacher and heading to her seat. Wally was looking at her like she had grown two extra heads.

"What did you say your name was?" the teacher asked.

"Emmy."

The man nodded approvingly. "Welcome to AP Chemistry, Emmy."

Wally was two rows over from her seat this time, but she saw him typing again.

'How did you know those?'

'They're just basic IUPAC examples.' He furrowed his eyebrows at the blue-eyed girl across the room. How did she know about IUPAC rules? They had just covered that on Thursday.

The bell rang sooner than Emmy would have liked, but then Mr. Honeycomb gave her a stack of papers an inch thick and her sour mood returned. Seriously? For one week? She was shoving the papers into her folder and hoping that they were mostly syllabi stuff instead of homework when Wally cornered her in the hallway again.

"What class do you have next?" he asked.

"American History," Emmy groaned, remembering Batman telling her was at a third-grade level. Wally nodded and walked to his locker for a book swap. He nodded at one across the hallway from his. "Yours is 314. Might wanna put your papers in there."

Emmy frowned at the locker with a yellow lock on it. She wasn't in the mood to enter the code the secretary had written in hot pink pen on the back of her schedule. Homework? Make-up work? A locker in a school? Those were things regular teens had. She was not normal, and she was not going to do this. "I'll hold them. You figure out how to get me out of here yet?"

She stood by his locker while he switched, and Wally was suddenly aware of all the looks he was getting by having the 'hot new girl' by his side. "Um," he refocused and started walking her to a fork in the hallway. He pointed to the right. "Okay, your history class is down there. Mr. Taylor teaches that one, and he's totally anal retentive. He goes ballistic when anyone implies that history is a blow off class, so be super disrespectful, and he should get you in trouble."

He looked down at Emmy and found himself wishing he were in that class because the evil spark in her eye meant something was definitely about to go down. She glanced at the time on her thin commlink watch.

"Each class is 50 minutes, right?"

"Yep."

"Great," she smirked at the hallway, then turned around and walked toward the exit.

"Where are you going?" Wally called after her surprised.

"For a drive."

Emmy pulled back into the empty faculty spot she had left half an hour ago. She went to get smoothies and had dropped pomegranate and peach ones off for Hunter and Sage, respectively. Both their teachers seemed so embarrassed by the idea of a 'young, unmarried mom' that they gave the smoothies to her kids without any questions. She had gotten one for herself too. It was a little heavy on the pineapple in relation to all the other tropical fruits in it, but she still liked it. Emmy walked into the school, leisurely strolling back toward the history hallway Wally had shown her. She stopped in front of the room with the number matching the one on her schedule. Showtime.

She kicked open the door dramatically, sucking smoothie through her straw and looking out at the classroom over the top of her sunglasses.

"'Sup?" She sent a lazy grin at the teacher. "This is the blowoff History class, right? I heard from a kid who graduated last year that all you do is watch Marvel movies in here."

"Excuse me?" The teacher stopped writing something about a war on the board and turned to the intruder. "Who are you?"

Emmy pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and crossed the room to sit at the teacher's desk, kicking her combat boots on top of a pile of papers. "I'm Emmy East. You're Mr. Taylor, yeah? I heard you were a total pushover." She looked at him. Short, but muscular. Army buzzcut. Watery blue eyes. Probably played football in high school and couldn't cut it in the big leagues. His jaw was ticking with rage. "So, do I actually have to show up for this class, or will you automatically give me an A for being taller than you, Rumpelstiltskin?"

There were a few horrified faces in the classroom, but a ton of guys and a few girls were laughing.

"Get your feet off my desk!" Taylor commanded.

"Whatever you say, Chief," Emmy moved her feet to the floor, knocking over his papers and mugs in the process. She took another sip of her smoothie. "Happy now, Frodo? Speaking of which, do you think we could cover the Lord of The Rings timeline? Because that would be way more applicable to life than the bullshit you're trying to pretend is important."

With that, Mr. Taylor's forehead vein was bulging, and his red face was screaming as he pulled her to the principal's office. Taylor spent three minutes yelling at Gibbs, but the woman's perkiness ate his rage and grew larger with every minute.

"Go back to your classroom, John, I will handle Miss East," The principal put her hand over her heart.

The short man glowered at Emmy as he passed her.

"Later, Rumpelstiltskin!" she called out jovially before turning to the still smiling principal.

"Margret," the woman turned to her secretary, "why don't you take lunch early?' The older woman left the room and Gibbs turned to Emmy. "Let's talk in my office."

Emmy shrugged, flipping her sunglasses back over her eyes. She sat down in the chair across from Apple Lady's desk and kicked her combat boots on top of the edge with an obnoxious smile. Mrs. Gibbs sat in her seat, smile dropping for the first time and switching to a contemplative look. Emmy waited for the other woman to speak.

"May I be honest with you, Emerald?" The principal threaded her hands underneath her chin.

"That would be a welcome change to the Miss-Frizzle's-midlife-crisis vibe you put out," Emmy smirked, confident that she would be kicked out soon.

"I understand that you are grieving," Emmy sat up a little. Wait what? "I was informed about the recent death of your parents." Recent? Emmy took her feet off the desk and sat up fully.

"Huh?'

"You must be going through a lot, losing two parents and having two siblings still look up to you," Mrs. Gibbs stood up and walked around to sit on the front of her desk right next to Emmy. "I see a young woman, grieving, who is lashing out from pain."

"I lashed out because Rumpelstiltskin was a pain in my ass," Emmy frowned. What was this chick getting at?

The principal glanced at the closed door and leaned in slightly. "Emerald, are you aware that your siblings' and your presence qualifies the school for the Bruce Wayne No Exceptions Continued Education Grant?"

"No?" Emmy's frown deepened, and she pushed her sunglasses back on the top of her head.

"You three going to this school, means that we get a LOT of money," the principal stated. "And to be blunt, its money we need. So, the only circumstance that would lead to your expulsion would be a school shooting," the principal leaned in threateningly. "Are you going to shoot up my school, Emerald?"

Emmy raised an eyebrow at the principal's change in behavior but replied honestly, "No."

"Great!" Mrs. Gibbs's obnoxiously wide smile returned, and she moved back to sit behind her desk. "So, this is how it's going to go, under no circumstances will you be expelled from my school."

Emmy felt her lip twitch into a brief snarl. That was unfortunate.

"But your experience here will depend entirely on you."

"Meaning?" Emmy asked.

"Meaning that you can either act out and spend every afternoon in detention until you graduate," the principal tugged on her right apple earring and leaned onto her elbows, "Or you can let me help you."

"Help me how, exactly?" Emmy was unamused by two-faced Miss Frizzle.

"I have a massive amount of sway at this school," she pointed at the principal plaque, "this has my name on it for a reason. I need you here, so use that to your advantage. Want to be captain of the cheerleading squad? Done. Want me to suspend the soccer goalie for two days because she gave you the side-eye at lunch? No problem. Want me to tell the security guard not to give you a ticket for parking in the faculty spot? My pleasure. Want to be Homecoming and Prom Queen each year? I'll let you pick the crowns you want." Emmy raised her eyebrows slightly. This woman may have been more interesting than she originally thought.

"But, if you choose to keep harassing my teachers, I'll have to keep you in detention. Indefinitely." Emmy didn't like the sound of that.

"Your attendance here will be entirely what you make of it!" the smile was back and doubled as she wrote something on the back of her business card. "This is my cell number. Text me anytime with anything you need. As long as it's not insanely expensive, and you don't tell anyone about our little arrangement, you'll get it. Just do your homework, keep the sass to a minimum, and you can be the queen of the school."

"I'm not trying to be the queen of a fucking high school," Emmy grumbled. But...some parts of the offer were interesting. And if there was no way to get expelled without murdering people and spending her life in prison, it wouldn't hurt to have the principal wrapped around her finger.

Mrs. Gibbs shrugged. "Just think about it, Emerald. You have time to decide if you want to utilize me or not," her smile increased yet again, "After all, you're not going anywhere."

It was a sunny and slightly breezy day, which meant that people could eat outside if they wanted to. That was always Wally's favorite part of the year. There were some apple trees around the outdoor lunch area, so he could snag a few each time he walked past. And the campus really was beautiful in the right light. He was sitting with his main friend group: Brandon, Jacob, and Andre. He met Jacob in seventh grade and bonded over their struggle on the same Halo level. And then Andre came along last year. He was a grade ahead, but Wally tutored him in Physics, and the friend trio had quickly absorbed the quirky shy guy with a comic book collection that put all of theirs to shame. Wally was working on his third PB&J when Brandon called him out.

"So, Wally," Brandon leaned onto the table. "What was with you and HNG earlier?"

"H-N-G?" Jacob asked.

"Hot New Girl. She's a Sophomore who started today," Brandon explained before turning back to their resident redhead, "and she and Wally definitely recognized each other from somewhere."

Wally shuffled in his seat a little. "Uhm, you see…" he trailed off. How was he supposed to explain Emmy? "It doesn't really matter because she doesn't want to be here and is planning to leave before the end of the day."

"Dude," Brandon narrowed his eyes. "I feel like it's against the bro-code to not let us know that you've been secretly fraternizing with a hottie."

Wally rolled his eyes. "She's not a hottie, Dude. She's a total pain in my ass!"

The other two boys perked up at his admission. Crap. Now all three of them were interested in how he knew her.

Brandon looked around before lowering his voice. "Did you let her peg you? Did you like it?"

"What?" Wally sputtered, half amused and half horrified. "I didn't mean it literally!"

"How did you mean it then, Walls?" Andre squinted his eyes, now curious as well. Wally was about to start reciting decimals of pi to distract them when he saw Emmy walk out of the building and plop down on the thick cement rails.

"Be right back," he stood up. "Gotta check something."

Emmy felt a slight breeze and a shadow covered half her face. She took her sunglasses off and looked up at the redhead.

"How did it go?" He asked.

"Miss Frizzle won't expel me," Emmy complained. "Ever."

"What?" Wally crossed his arms. "Why not?"

"If you're going to stick around, will you move two inches to your left?" Wally rolled his eyes but moved to block the sun from getting into her eyes.

"Well?" he raised an eyebrow as Emmy sighed deeply.

"She won't expel me because the school gets a Bruce Wayne orphan grant as long as I'm here," Emmy sat up on the ledge and pointed at him with her smoothie. "Does Bats not realize how heavy-handed that is?"

"Wha-what?" Wally was a little flabbergasted by her casual implication.

"Oh, please, Flashboy," she rolled her eyes but kept her voice low. "You're Rob's best friend. I know you know who he is." She went to drink her smoothie, but Wally snatched it. He ignored an errant thought that she looked cute when she pouted slightly at the theft.

"Yeah, I know because I'm his friend," he looked around to make sure no one else was close enough to hear. "How the hell do you know?"

"Because I have a brain?" Emmy offered. "I could tell you the secret ID's of half the League. Just from casual outside observation."

"You could not," Wally insisted, taking a sip of the smoothie without registering that it wasn't his. Emmy quirked an eyebrow before stealing it back for a sip of her own.

"I could," she sympathetically hissed. "but it wouldn't do you any good because you'd have no idea if I was right or not." She smirked at him tauntingly but offered the smoothie to him. He took it without hesitation but kept arguing.

'You are so full of shit."

"I'm not a mirror."

"Oh, ha ha. So clever."

"Wow, it is true what they say about broken clocks being right twice a day."

"This smoothie is good. What kind is it?"

"Sunrise Sunset."

Wally huffed a laugh as he drank more of it.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Emmy rolled her eyes and leaned back on the ledge slightly. "Because we're the 'horizon'."

He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"You didn't notice because you were failing to flirt with Megs at the time, but we were standing next to each other at the team dinner at one point and Rob said, 'Wow, look. The team has its very own horizon'," the two teens chuckled at the mention of their favorite gymnast and his wordplay. "Now anytime we get within ten feet of each other, he'll look at me and whisper 'Horizon' while shaking his arms in a weird, serpentine way."

"That sounds like him," Wally smirked fondly. "Actually, I've heard him do that a couple times. Guess it didn't register. Makes me glad he doesn't go to school with me for once." Emmy pinched the bridge of her nose at the mention of school. "Speaking of which, what's your plan now?"

He tried not to enjoy the pain in her groan, but the schadenfreude was real. "I don't know," she glared at the sky. "I guess I just go here now?" She frowned. "And I have to relearn how to study and do homework while saving the world twice a week. No biggie."

"Don't be such a martyr," Wally scoffed. "Rob and I have been doing the tights and school balance for years without problem."

Emmy glared at him. Yeah, but neither of you took a five-year break to join a fight club.

"At least Chem won't immediately kick your ass," Wally shrugged at her. "How did you know that stuff anyway?"

"I read a lot of books that libraries were getting rid of when I wasn't in school," she grabbed the smoothie back.

"Really?" He had pictured her in a balaclava with Band-Aids everywhere fighting 12 hours a day.

She rolled her eyes at him like she could see what was in his head. "I trained every day, but the matches were only on the weekend. I figured I needed to learn stuff in case Sage or Hunter had questions on their homework." She chuckled. "Bludhaven has pretty shit schools though, so that only happened a few times."

"When did you learn sign language?" Wally asked abruptly. It had been at the back of his mind for a while, but he had never gotten around to asking it because they didn't talk alone.

"Hunter got really sick one time as a baby. I think that's when he went deaf, but I didn't realize it until he was like 18 months-ish?" her eyes were far away. "I dropped a cookie sheet on the ground right next to him, and he didn't wake up. I made a ton more noise and nothing happened. It suddenly clicked that he couldn't hear, so I went to get all the sign language books the library had, and here we are."

Wally raised his eyebrows slightly. It was clear that she loved her siblings, and it humanized her a little more than it should have. He was reaching to take the smoothie back when a large shadow overtook them, and a deep voice interrupted.

"Is this geek bothering you, Sexy?" Wally grit his teeth at the voice. Zeke. The football team quarterback who had been off-and-on with Stacy since she broke Wally's heart. Great, just great. He had been having a mostly civil conversation with Emmy, but now she would shove him aside for this overgrown ape and he'd have to hear all about Zeke during their missions.

"Did I ask you to speak?" Wally turned to Emmy's deadpanned face in surprise.

"Uh. No?" Zeke replied.

"Then why are you?"

Jock Boy didn't seem to have a reply to that. He wasn't horrible to look at, but he had a douche face and vibe that Emmy did not find attractive at all.

"Because- well, because a ten like you shouldn't talk to a nothing like West over here."

Emmy rubbed the bridge of her nose before turning to Wally. "Is high school really like this? Is this my life now?"

He was shocked for a second before he smirked at her. "Basically. Not a lot of IQ points in this joint."

"Listen up, Jockstrap," Emmy handed her smoothie to Wally, keeping her eyes on the guy at the head of the group of four football players. "I don't need your approval to talk to anyone. I'm also pretty sure Wally and I have been talking for a few minutes at this point, so if I wanted to leave, I would have. So why don't you go kick a ball or something and get out of our business?"

The boys behind Jockstrap were snickering at their leader's failed flirting attempt. He glared at them and Wally before stomping back to his table. Wally was pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. Maybe having Emmy at his school wouldn't be so terrible after all. Emmy hopped off the ledge and walked back into the school.

"Where are you going?"

"To put shit in my locker."

Wally rolled his eyes at the girl but returned to his table, trying to ignore the gob smacked looks on his friends' faces.

"Are you dating her?" Brandon scowled.

"No!" Wally crossed his arms. She was a patronizing she-devil.

"Then why were you two swapping spit and stories for ten minutes?" Jacob looked at him suspiciously.

"We were not swapping spit," Wally looked at them confused until he saw them all glancing at the smoothie still in his hands. Oh. He felt the back of his neck get a little hot. "Alright, so technically maybe we were, but that is so not the connotation of that phrase."

"Stop stalling and answer the question, Walls."

He was backed into a corner.

"Alright, fine. Sheesh. It's not a big deal. I just know her from my internship team."

"But I thought they weren't taking anymore applicants?" Brandon asked with pain in his voice.

Wally had used his Bruce Wayne internship as a cover for his extracurricular activities since he was 13. His friends all thought that he had been chosen because of his high grades, and that his superhero activities were actually more along the lines of mathlete competitions, theoretical physics discussions, and the occasional chemistry experiment in Wayne labs in Gotham. Brandon had spent months trying to get accepted into the program when Wally first mentioned it two years ago. It got to the point where Wally had to say that the slots were closed, and the internship wasn't accepting any more people.

"That's why you said you vouching for me and giving my resume wouldn't make a difference,'' Brandon continued.

Wally shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Brandon was smart too. He was a few years behind Wally in physics and chemistry, but they were right together on math. They had nearly identical math grades since elementary school, and they were both partially enjoying and partially surviving AP Calc AB before they took AP Calc BC together as Juniors. If there really were a Bruce Wayne mathlete team, Brandon would definitely beat out Hasn't-Been-To-School-For-Five-Years East.

"It is closed!" Wally rubbed the back of his neck. "But…Bruce made an exception for Emmy. And I tried talking to him about making another exception for you, and he said no, which is why I never mentioned Emmy joining the group."

"When did you first meet her?" Brandon narrowed his eyes.

Wally winced. "Um... July 4th?"

"Wow," Brandon drew out the syllable in thinly veiled betrayal. "So, are there actually no more spots, or do you just not want to see me outside of school?"

"Wait, man," Wally started. "It's not like that!"

The bell chose that moment to ring, and his friends all went inside. Jacob and Andre sent him 'just apologize and it will be fine' looks. Wally sighed and threw the empty smoothie cup into the trash. He was back to thinking that having Emmy at his school would be terrible.

The rest of Emmy's day was nondescript. Gym was fine. Each person had one chance to climb, or try to climb, the rope to hit the bell by the ceiling. She could have done it in 20 seconds, but she let herself take almost a minute in case anyone thought she looked like a certain green hero who stopped an asteroid from hitting their town recently. She was one of the first people to go, so the rest of class was just waiting for the other 47 morons to take their turn.

Emmy noticed Wally getting the cold shoulder from the people he sat with at lunch. He moved over to talk to a new group of two guys and a girl. Whatever. Not her monkey, not her circus. Emmy was regretting the fact that she didn't bring her iPod with her to the gym. Now that she didn't have earphones in, people kept trying to talk to her.

Are you new to Central City? Where do you live? Your name is Emerald, right? What classes are you in? Want to go get dinner tonight? Want to go see a movie with me? The majority of the questions were asked by guys, so she just kept her arms crossed and sent them the occasional blank look until they walked away. Jockstrap came up to her again after his time on the rope. It took him 34 seconds to hit the bell.

"Impressed?" He winked at her.

She checked her watch. Gym should end in ten minutes, and then she'd get to move on to Calculus. Finally. She needed a break with something she could really enjoy. She had a stack of homework from the first week of school in her locker already, and she still had two classes left. What was wrong with a GED, Batman? Tons of people have one.

The bell eventually rang, and she headed over to math. The class was a welcome reprieve. Evidently AP Calc AB covered Calculus one and BC covered two. They were still just doing derivatives and integrals at this point, so Emmy caught up without problem. The teacher, Mr. Rainwater, gave her a homework packet at the end of class and told her to email if she needed help catching up. Emmy told the man that she would be fine, but she appreciated the thought.

Physics was the last class between her and daylight. The teacher was starting Unit 2 about vectors. Emmy zoned out quickly. She knew how to do vector calculations, they popped up a lot in her Calc three book, but Mrs. Duncan was explaining what they actually were and where the math came from and it was an overload on Emmy's already tired brain. Duncan gave her two packets on the first unit and told her she should be fine catching up because unit one was just about measurements.

Emmy walked back to her locker with "I feel like I'm drowning" playing into her ears. How appropriate. She got the lock off, but the locker itself wouldn't open. A really tall guy with red hair much darker than Wally's and a cute face walked over. She was off the clock. She did not want to deal with any more people or any more questions. She just wanted to go pick up Hunter and Sage and see how their days had gone.

"You might need to hit it," Tall Boy offered with a smile. "I had this locker last year and sometimes it gets jammed."

He walked right next to her. "If you hit right underneath the number it usually opens on one go." He punched a preexisting dent beneath the 314 plaque with the side of his fist and the locker opened easily.

"I actually made that dent," he admitted sheepishly. His lopsided grin wasn't bad to look at, and she liked a redhead with brown eyes. They weren't super common.

"Hmm," she grabbed the other papers off of the shelf. "Thanks."

The guy beamed down at her. "No problem. I'm Trent by the way."

"Emmy," she offered back.

"Well, Emmy. Welcome to Keystone," he put his hands in his pocket. "I'll see you around?"

She closed the door and put the lock back on. She couldn't get expelled, so she supposed she really was stuck here, and that he really would see her around.

"I guess," she shrugged noncommittedly, but that seemed to make Tall Boy happy because he winked at her before jogging away.

"Isn't Trent, like, SO cute? The basketball team is, like, SO lucky to have him." A high-pitched voice with a valley girl inflection sounded from her left.

Emmy glanced over her shoulder as she started walking down the hall. The voice belonged to a tiny girl. A little under 5 feet, in a cheer uniform, with dangly earrings brushing her shoulders and a pink gum bubble coming out of her mouth. She had long black curl with one strand twirling around a finger.

"Sure," Emmy confirmed. She put her keyring around her thumb and started spinning it. One more turn and she'd be on the hallway leading to the exit and her freedom. The shorter girl walked faster.

"I'm Stacy. Stacy Johnson," the girl smiled like Emmy already knew that.

"Emmy East," Emmy replied without looking at her.

"I know. I saw you in my English class this morning." Stacy picked up the pace again. "Anyways, I'm basically, like, the queen bee around here, so if you need something you should totally let me know, New Girl."

Emmy felt the sunshine and breeze hit her face and took a long breath outside.

"We girls have to stick together don't you think?" Stacy asked, still twirling the hair. There was a glint in her eye that made Emmy think this was some weird territory marking thing and not a genuine welcome. Emmy waved at the girl over her shoulder without looking back and went to her car. There was a yellow ticket on the window.

She hummed to herself. $250 for parking in a faculty spot? She pulled out her phone and texted the number on the card the principal gave her. Guess I will be utilizing her.