A PSA before the chapter (I'm making a general announcement because I've said this a lot but only in replies to individual people):
I'm continually surprised by the amount of people who expect the core five will get powers in the course of this story. I guess it's to be expected because it's what usually happens with these stories (and of course I realize I'm only surprised because obviously *I* know where the story's going), but that was never where I was going with this lol.
The story I'm trying to tell is more "what would happen if mostly normal kids just *decided* to be superheroes?" Like "What if you didn't undergo a lab accident or got powers from puberty or got hand-picked by a god, and you still wanna go out and help people?" I just find it a much more interesting story if I keep the tension and pushback from parents, school, government, and the established actually-authorized superheroes, and that's what I'm writing.
I just want to manage you guys' expectations now because even though there's A Lot of magic in this story, the kids are not going to quit school to go live in the tower, you know? That's all, now onto the story! ^^
December. Alien territory p.1
"All I'm saying is," Dick told his friends, as they walked down the hall towards lunch, "if we had one of those evidence boards, you know, with the strings connecting pictures, it'd be much better—not saying I'm gonna get one! But it'd be useful."
"This is the first time I've agreed with anything you say," Gar stated, almost passionately. "We have the fame, the history, and the training. We're just missing the aesthetic." He said aesthetic with his palms held out before his face, eyes twinkling.
"It would be more efficient," Dick clarified, who really wanted to do it for the aesthetic.
"Is that why you take pictures of everything?" asked Raven. Dick had been adamant about registering the visuals of every mission they did, even the lame ones—which had been all of them this year.
Kori had been discreetly googling 'evidence board' on her phone, and only now got what they were talking about. "It would be nice to have a conspiracy cork board! What is stopping you, Dick?"
"Well, I'd have to print out all the pictures on my phone and cut them out, and to be honest it sounds like collage work from preschool," said Dick.
"There's probably a computer program you can use to create your crazy board effect," Vic pointed out.
"Yeah…" Dick breathed. "But it's not the same."
"What's going on over here?" Raven asked, sending the group's attention to the hallway.
Now they were right outside the cafeteria, the atmosphere was clearly charged. Football players ran around shouting. Cheerleaders hopped around, half-following a choreography. They observed the signs on the walls. 'DestroyTerrance High', referring to their school's traditional rival. Vic thought about it for a second and remembered: it was the last game of the season next week. He told his friends as much, and they scoffed.
"I hate this time of the year," said Dick.
Half a dozen kids ran by waving the school flag and chanting, "Kill Terrance High!"
"This is turning into a cult," Gar said, and immediately wanted to swallow the words back. He turned slowly around and sure enough—he was instantly met with Raven's withering glare.
"Uh, I mean…-" he began.
"I know cults," she stated.
"Right," agreed Gar.
"My house is thought of as a cult. This is nothing like it."
"Noted," said Gar.
Vic sought Kori's eyes, looking for the one who'd surely be looking wistfully at the celebratory atmosphere, but even she looked overwhelmed as they waded through the over-excited crowd. He thought his friends' distaste was excessive; he still remembered the excitement of being a football player during high season. It was a time of unity, school pride, shared goals.
However, as they sat down for lunch, and cheerleaders were dancing on a line at the front of the cafeteria, and then Coach Dayton was presenting the new football team captain –Eric Hwang, who walked out like a debutante coming out for the school-, Vic had to agree it was quite grating when you were outside of it.
Raven finally set down her knife and fork. "I can't eat with all this racket."
"When does this end?" asked Dick.
"A few clubs go forward and invite everyone to the pep rally," Vic reminded them. He technically had an extra season's experience under his belt. "Then the cheerleaders do a routine, and it's over."
Just like he said, subsequently Angel Edenfield invited everyone on behalf of the Christian club, and Jade Nguyen-Crock spoke for the yearbook committee, which left Kitty to say the cheerleaders wanted everyone to be there. Then the three moved to their cheerleading positions for the final routine.
Dick said, "Ah yes, the three branches of high school government. Cheerleading team, yearbook committee, and Christian club. Enter the buffoon—sorry, I mean the mascot."
The mascot was a humanoid goat who hopped around and lunged as if he was butting the air, while the cheerleaders danced. The identity of the kid under that costume was a State secret. Very few students were furiously cheering at the spectacle, the bulk of the students cheering halfheartedly, and some –among whom the Five were included, as well as Jen's table- were ignoring the proceedings entirely.
After the show ended and the dust settled, the Five didn't get to eat in peace either, as that was when Kitty approached their table. "Heey."
Dick ducked his head down, trying to hide behind Gar. Both Kori and Raven were pretending Kitty didn't exist.
"You guys, we made regionals! Isn't that exciting?" Kitty said.
"Congrats," said Vic, taking the lead as the Normal One in the group. "When's the big game?"
"Next Friday! Will I see you there?"
"Probably not," said Vic, still smiling.
Kitty laughed. "You guys are so stuck-up! You never go to things! But you will go to my party, won't you?"
"Party?" echoed Gar.
"I'm having a pre-pep rally party on Friday," Kitty said, adamant on talking at Dick over Gar's head. "You're all invited!"
After Kitty left, Gar sucked on the straw of his juice box and stared after her curiously. "Okay, I don't get it. Are we popular or aren't we?"
"Beats me," said Dick.
"Last week, Angel asked me why we weren't at… I don't know, some game," said Raven. "As in, she talked to me, in the hallway."
Gar said, "Now you mention it, one time, I was in the hallway and Kitty pulled me into their walk—you know, when they walk down the hall and people move aside? Like, people moved for me."
"Fang asked me to go to the amusement park with him," offered Kori.
Dick turned to her. "When?"
"Oh, a time weeks ago where he was broken up with Kitty," said Kori, not able to push back a smile when she perceived Dick's sudden increase in attention.
Raven was reminded of Adam sort of hitting on her at the start of the year, and wondered if that too was a symptom of this weirdness. She'd assumed he was messing with her; she hadn't considered he really meant it. The thought made her no more or less uncomfortable than if he hadn't, and she didn't share the incident with her friends.
"It's so weird," said Dick. "It's like, for some things we're popular, and for others we're not."
Vic had been looking onto his friends in amusement as they pieced this together. Now he set down his finished yogurt and smiled at them fondly. "Okay. I know you guys were probably outcasts all your lives, so I'll try to make this nice and simple. We're not popular. Why? 'Cause we're kind of a mess, honestly. We don't fit the aesthetic. But" he paused for effect, "You can't deny we're famous. Because of what we do, we're household names. We're simultaneously a beacon of hope for the freaks and… an unavoidable blip in the popular kids' radar." It was almost sweet how his friends were listening with rapt attention, like when he was explaining Physics to them. Vic had to strive to keep laughter out of his voice. "We're a clique of our own, and a confusing one. That means the popular kids will wanna change us so we look and act more like them. So we can become normal popular, and put them at ease. That's why they drill us to go to school events. Any questions?"
Gar raised his hand. "Does that mean I can try to date one of the cheerleaders?"
Vic thought about it. "We could be eligible to date up, yeah, probably."
"That's all I needed to know," said Gar, rubbing his hands.
Raven gave him a look of distaste, then asked Vic, "How long is this gonna last?"
"The uncertain social status?" asked Vic. "Depends on what this club turns to. Maybe we never get another cool mission and we fall back into obscurity. Or maybe we keep doing cooler and cooler stuff and this lasts all of high school."
"Great," said Raven, massaging the sides of her head.
Dick said, "I have a question. Do we go to this party?"
Vic shrugged. "A party's a party."
"But it's in Kitty's house," grumbled Dick.
"We'll protect you," droned Raven. "I'll go if everyone goes."
"Of course we're going, it's a popular kids' party," opined Gar, sounding appalled anything else was being considered.
"Kori?" asked Dick.
Kori had been afraid someone would single her out. She'd been quiet because she was torn. Theoretically, she wanted the classic high school experience, and secretly would have been happy to attend the games and pep rallies and homecoming dances if her friends were so inclined. She also knew by now that she didn't actually enjoy big parties with impossibly loud music, lots of people she didn't know, and dancing she couldn't quite crack. Besides, this party was at Kitty's house, who would be all over Dick if given the chance; but Kori also also knew now how much Dick hated Kitty, so it didn't matter how much she threw herself at him—he would dodge. All in all, she was quite undecided. She decided to echo Raven. "Yes. I will go if we all go."
As the discussion of whether or not they should go continued into the hallway before they parted for fourth period, Raven reflected on how the way they talked about parties within their group had changed lately—now, apparently, they considered themselves a group that went out and partied.
It had all started a few weeks ago, one night when Dick had his house to himself and brought out some booze from Bruce's. Initially it had taken some convincing –mainly from Gar- for Dick to crack open the secret alcohol pantry, but after a certain point he'd begun bringing out more bottles of his own accord.
The five kept drinking as if they didn't notice how much they were having. Nobody was saying it, but Raven understood the vibe had changed: organically, tacitly, they had decided to get all the way, honest to God drunk.
And Raven had been torn. On the one hand, Azarath forbid any and all mood-altering substances, let alone the extreme of intoxication. She was already breaking that principle by engaging. Expect she wasn't really breaking anything, because she wasn't technically sworn into Azarath—her mother was. For Raven, this was yet another moment of deciding if she was more a child of Azarath or a teenage girl of the world. She'd eventually gone with the teenage world.
Now she didn't remember everything about that night; and she was glad of it, because she did have flashes of herself laughing out-loud and dancing a lot, and talking much more than she usually did. She also remembered Vic seemingly attempting to take a bite off the couch.
And so now they talked about parties like they had been going out and getting drunk for ages. Raven guessed they all felt they had upgraded somehow—grown up enough to behave immaturely.
Raven's thoughts were cut short by the intercom bursting to life. "Project Club, to the Principal's office," said the Secretary's canned voice, and the Project Club were forced to put the discussion on ice.
"You probably wondered why Butter the Goat wasn't shown at the cafeteria pep rally," Principal Blood said.
The distinction between the goat mascot and Butter the Goat had thrown Kori for a loop a while ago, until it was explained to her: aside from the kid in a costume, Murakami High had a live animal mascot, a dark brown goat Gar had once called majestic. But none of Five had noticed it wasn't there today.
"I told the cheerleaders Butter was recovering from a cold. The truth is, he's been stolen."
"You want us to find him," said Dick.
Blood glared at him, as if reproaching him for moving so far ahead on the script. "It's of the utmost importance that we keep this secret. The prime suspects are the students of Terrance High school. I just found out the football team stole a trophy of theirs last week. This must be retaliation."
"…So, you want us to find the goat," said Vic.
"Now, you understand the effects of missing a mascot before the last game of the season. Students might… succumb to despair."
"Right," said Dick, acquiescing through gritted teeth. "Well, I think we really ought to find it, then."
"Oh, I wouldn't ask you to do that," said Blood.
Once outside, Dick looked at his team. "Okay, this one should be fun, right? Where the hell do we start?"
"Are we gonna have to infiltrate that school?" Raven asked.
Gar said, "Hey, that's the school where Lodestar and Lux Piper were crowned prom king and queen. You know the story, Kori?"
"I do not," smiled Kori.
Gar told it. "So the old mayor's daughter had her dad force Lodestar to take her to her junior prom."
"Allegedly," said Dick.
"Everyone knows that's what happened," said Gar. "Lodestar looked so uncomfortable before Lux showed up."
"See, this is why I'm sure she likes him back," interjected Vic. "Why else would she have come to get him?"
"She's his teammate," said Raven.
"She was jealous," said Vic. "She was making sure nothing happened."
"The rest of the team was on a mission," said Raven.
"She should have been on the mission too, but she went to the prom to make sure that girl kept her hands to herself," argued Vic.
"Have your Luxar discussion in your own time," Gar cut them off.
"Who do you ship with Lodestar, Raven?" Vic laughed.
"Shipping real people is gross," she returned. Secretly, she thought Lodestar and Chameleon looked cuter together.
"Anyway," said Gar. "The mission and the prom turned out to be one thing!"
Kori was lost. "What?"
"Gar, you tell things so badly," complained Dick.
Gar frowned at him. "I mean, the weird mutant birds the other Titans were fighting turned out to be the thing the mayor was holding over the Titans's head so Lodestar would take the girl to prom! The mayor was a supervillain on the side! And the girl had the trigger to send them all wild, and she set it off at prom! And all the Titans ended up crashing the prom to save the town. That's why that guy's our ex-mayor."
"So the ex-mayor and daughter are in jail?" asked Kori.
"Nope, he's on the run for this year's election again," Gar. "The daughter's somewhere in Europe."
"It's an honor to have your prom ruined by the Titans," said Dick.
"Totally," agreed Vic.
Seymour came into the scene and swung an arm around Gar. "Gar, my dude! You ever found the answer to that logic problem you gave me?"
"Hey Seymour," Gar said reluctantly.
"What are you heroes up to?" Seymour asked.
"Uh," Gar looked at his friends. "We can't say."
Seymour's smile curdled. "No kidding. You got a big mission from the principal just now? We all heard the intercom."
"Sort of," Dick said, in a tone that really said 'fuck off'. He turned to his friends and nodded towards down the hall. "Does anyone know anyone who goes to that school?"
"I'm on their Twitter page," said Vic, looking at his phone.
"We should start a list of people who are known to…" Dick began, his voice being lost to Seymour as the group walked away.
Seymour watched them walk off. "Hmph. Douches."
"Fame got them big-headed, didn't it?"
Seymour jumped and turned around. The chirpy voice belonged to Jenny Hex, standing right next to him. She'd never spoken to him before, but he was quick to agree. "Right?" he laughed. "They think they're so special with their exclusive group no one else can get into!"
Jenny nodded in understanding. "Shame how that happens. Hey. Here's an idea. Stop pining after the League of Ordinary Losers."
"I'm not!" he protested.
She was smiling. "Good. Then come be on my team."
Seymour looked behind her, to where she was nodding. The other four guys she regularly hung out with were also looking at him expectantly. He looked at them and then at Jen's cute mischievous face, and shrugged. "Okay!"
The Five were on Dick's home gym, on a break between cardio and combat practice. Gar was using it to show Kori videos the Terrance High prom where Lodestar and Lux were crowned.
"See, this blog compiled every existing video of that prom," he said, holding his phone to show her a painstakingly curated fanblog. Underneath the banner image –that one beautiful candid shot of Lodestar at an Eid festival back in his hometown in Pakistan that his fansites loved to use- there were nested dozens of shaky phone videos taken by half the students attending the prom. "In this one you can really see Lux is really ticked off."
"Lux Piper is always ticked off," said Vic, watching the video over Gar's shoulder.
"Pass me this website," said Kori. Vic was quickly turning her towards Luxar.
Dick came back from the bathroom impetuously, like when he was struck by inspiration. "What did we do with the Terrance High trophy when the football players stole it as a prank?" he asked.
Gar replied. "I saw that Adam Kelley had it on his house and everyone was invited to take a picture with it on the condition they cyberbullied Terrance kids with." He'd seen it all over Instagram.
"Why'd you ask?" asked Vic.
Dick turned to him. "You get another school's mascot, what do you do? Keep it hidden away somewhere?"
"No. You flaunt it to your schoolmates," said Raven.
"Exactly," said Dick, and turned his phone around so they could see the Twitter post he had pulled up. "And Terrance High is having a party tomorrow."
"Another party?" asked Gar. "Now I'm interested!"
"We don't have to break into a house if there's a house party," smirked Dick. Then he got stern. "But this wouldn't be a regular party. This is a mission. We'll go there to observe and retrieve a mascot. Which means, we're staying sober."
Gar's smile fell. "What?"
"It makes sense," Kori said. "We wait until everyone is drunk, and if the mascot is there, we can take it easily."
Gar said, "Being drunk will help us blend in."
"Learn to act," stated Dick.
Gar got weirdly serious. "Okay, if we have to be sober for the Terrance party, we're going to Kitty's party and we're all getting wasted."
"We're seriously still debating whether or not to go to that party?" Raven asked.
Gar turned on her. "If you'd follow me on ganging up on Dick when I say we have to go we wouldn't have this problem."
"Okay, now wait. I've got something to say," Vic announced. "If we're gonna start going to parties and getting wasted, I wanna have fun too. I'm not gonna always be the designated driver just because I'm the only driver. Here's my idea. Instead of splitting designated driver, we're splitting designated caretaker—person whose turn it us to make sure we all get home safe, by Uber, by bus, by taking everyone by the hand walking through the streets, whatever."
Gar was quick to respond. "I accept, but here's another point. Teach me how to drive. That way I can be a real designated driver and help you out sometime."
"You're not getting in the driver seat of my beautiful car," stated Vic, and Gar fell back on a bouncing ball dramatically.
"I used to believe American high schools taught how to drive," Kori said.
"They used to, but it's been fading," Dick told her.
"East High has Driver's Ed," Vic commented.
"You're actually gonna have to teach all of us how to drive, Vic," said Dick, only half-joking. "It's not like we go to prestigious East High where they still have Driver's Ed."
"You're rich, you get private lessons," Vic retorted.
"My uncle's rich, I'm not-"
"Yeah, yeah, that's what rich people always say," Vic cut him off.
Gar got up in Vic's face. "I'm poor! You have to teach me!"
"So who's first in this designated caretaker thing?" Raven asked.
Vic thought about it. "Rock, paper, scissors for it," he said, offering his fist.
"Then alphabetical?" Raven made sure.
"Then alphabetical," Vic confirmed.
There was a small five-way tournament. After three rounds, Dick was the loser.
"Fine by me," he said, crossing his arms. "I don't wanna be drunk in Kitty's house." Saying that out loud made him think of partying in Kitty's domain. And thinking that made him rethink everything. "Maybe let's not go. Let's stay and get wasted here like last time."
Dick had liked last time. They had played music too loud, played games whose rules he didn't remember, and left ahuge mess everywhere. At one point he'd looked to his left and Gar was half naked. At another he'd found Raven hugging her knees sitting on the floor by the kitchen counter with a lost look on her face, and when he'd talked to her she'd apologized for a time she'd said his sunglasses were tacky. Twenty minutes later she was challenging Vic at arm-wrestling, losing repeatedly and refusing to back down. He also remembered Kori dancing around like a lovely butterfly, laughing ecstatically.
But Gar now turned to him and said, "Dick, that's so lame."
As Raven and Kori were leaving, Raven said, "If we're going, you have to let us know before seven. Or we're not going."
Gar was adamant. "We're going. There's nothing to discuss!" He looked at Vic for support.
"I don't care," he said sincerely. "Yeah, let's go."
So Gar turned to Dick. "Dick, we're going with or without you."
"Fine. We'll go," Dick finally pronounced, and it was finally done.
And so, a little before seven Kori was gathering outfits to take to Raven's house. She always ended up going over there with a huge travel bag, but she couldn't help it: getting ready was her favorite part of parties. Maybe it was the only thing she liked about parties.
At Raven's house, and after several tries and parading, she settled on baby pink jeans and a purple off-the-shoulders shirt. Raven wore one of her usual black skirt, tights and boots combo, along with a black halter top and blue plaid jacket.
Raven had been experimenting with grey lipstick lately. Kori watched her apply it methodically on her mirror, put the cap back on and put the lipstick in her bag, then simply move on to put her coat on, without once looking at Kori. It would always amaze Kori how Raven could introduce changes to her appearance and not turn to another girl and go What do you think? Clearly she was on another level. Alternately, there was maybe something wrong with Kori that she was so doubtful about everything. It probably had to do with why she was bad at parties.
But she'd enjoyed the impromptu little five-personparty they had at Dick's. It had been fun, but also embarrassing. Kori remembered falling over more than once. But Dick had tried to fight the standing lamp, so she guessed it was fine.
The next thing she remembered was the next morning, when Gar got up like nothing happened and opened the curtains wide, and the impossibly bright light had attacked all her senses at once. Gar had been met with groans and protests from the hungover rest of them, and Kori remembered cracking one eye open and seeing a look of utter confusion on his face. "What's wrong with you guys? I feel great!"
But she'd had fun, and that gave her confidence that she'd get all parties eventually. She wasn't even that far behind:She was pretty sure that had been at least Dick and Raven's first time getting drunk as well. As she and Raven left for Vic's house, she felt perfectly hopeful she'd manage to enjoy this party too—Kitty or no Kitty.
*Happily types away reflections on US high school culture like I didn't go to a school with no cheerleaders, or clubs, sports teams, mascots, or even a cafeteria*
Miss evergreen: Lo decís porque te acordás de la lista de personajes que introduzco este año? Porque te digo que sí, dentro de poco viene Blackfire, pero todavía noo :D Creo que cuando llegue también te vas a dar cuenta por el título :D Con respecto a BBxRae, también falta bastante camino para recorrer con ellos este año! En la segunda mitad viene Terra, así que en realidad es el turno de Raven para estar celosa :) También te digo que seguimos viendo un poco más de Victor y Bee este año. Gracias por leer y comentar!