That's when the school principal came out, followed by... just about everyone else. Shouting from teachers and the principal to stop, and from everyone else to keep going, filled the space behind the school. Nothing the teacher could say could stop this fight, and it was looking more and more aggressive. Flash was fighting hard, but Tim was fighting well. Strangely well. They continued their rolling as a shrill sound pierced the yelling. Red and blue lights came from the street behind us. They didn't even react as the police cars came up to the school entrance, and the door opened allowing the policeman in the passenger side to quickly make his way toward the fight. Tim was trying to help... Is he really going to get arrested for this? I worried silently as the first policeman began pulling Tim off Flash and the second came to his aid. I felt that same feeling of being watched, Mandy? I turned around, and sure enough, there she was... taking notes. She noticed me noticing her, and quickly wrote, apparently about me, before dashing from her spot behind the window, out of sight. I ran inside to follow her while everyone else was distracted by the outside commotion. She was behind a door down the hall from where Will had saved me a locker. I watched as, from the shadow of the dark room, she pulled out her phone, and I adjusted my position to see who she was calling without her noticing me. "Mom" was all that lit the screen as she made her call, which didn't give me much to work with. "I found him." She whispered a little bit loudly into the phone, gripping it as if that were an important secret message. Maybe it was... Some words I couldn't make out clearly other than, "are you sure?" came to the other side as she quickly listened to answer.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I can explain why later"

She quickly hung up, clearly not wanting to be noticed or overheard, but she hadn't seemed to notice me, so I was probably safe. After that she walked out as if nothing had happened.

Tim's POV

Ugh... I leaned back on the leather seat, of the thankfully-not-moving police car as the policeman talked with our principal, and the second policeman continued wrestling with Flash, who was definitely resisting quite effectively. I didn't know what he had hoped to accomplish by fighting the officer. The man was a large guy, who looked like he could have been in some sort of military setting, and even if Flash did get away where do you really think you're going to go? So much for avoiding trouble the first day of school. I wouldn't have to explain myself too much at home, which honestly felt somewhat odd, but it still wasn't a good thing to come home after. On top of that it was terrible for school reputation, and it wouldn't be too long before Will had enough. Then I'd lose one of the closer friends I'd had for the past eight years. He may have overestimated just how close we were, but we were no doubt close. He'd be pretty crushed, which felt awful. I can never explain it to him... probably. Hopefully? ...No That's when the police door opposite mine was opened and Flash had to be practically shoved in, because he still hadn't decided to co-operate. He was handcuffed, which I'd avoided by simply going with the man when he asked. Despite what it looked like to everyone, I respected the police quite a bit and really wanted to be on their good side, but sometimes we don't get much of a choice... "Really?!" Flash yelled at me, making me a little glad that he was handcuffed.

"You can't light fireworks two feet from the side of the school, Flash! That's nuts! Do you actually want to get us thrown in jail the first day of school?!" I was probably too aggravated for my own good, especially if our "friendship" was supposed to recover, but it was hard to care right now from the back of a police car. Flash surprisingly seemed to take it to heart a bit. Maybe because I really didn't get that mad all that often. He seemed to calm down a bit after staring out the window for a minute.

"It would have been fine." He said, still not looking at me, but I knew enough about reactions to notice he meant that more to reassure himself and deny being wrong than actually argue.

"Look, it doesn't mean we can't hang out, but we can't blow things up," I said trying to playfully recover some and lighten the mood. He looked back toward me to give a slight smirk, "Not next to school, we can't..." I smirked back, even though I didn't really approve of the implication of that, "All right, next time is right outside your widow." I said back to him.

"Are we still on today then?" I felt bad, Flash almost seemed like he might be starting to like me. Maybe we could get something going. Maybe he doesn't have to be all bad... But for the present time, I needed to stay focused. Thankfully, nothing about my purpose in getting to know him involved actually hurting him in any way. Hopefully he wouldn't involve his dad either, but I wasn't sure Flash would care much, which was pretty sad. "Yeah, so long as you don't get yourself in jail" I responded hoping it didn't come off aggressively. It wasn't meant to. My door opened and one of the policemen backed away from it a bit which I understood rather clearly as an invitation, but I waited just in case. "Tim, you can finish school but stay out of trouble" he instructed. I got out, although I did genuinely feel a bit bad leaving Flash by himself. I guess it was his fault, but it really felt wrong. I looked back at him and offered a slight smile of hopeful encouragement not to stay in jail, and we would see each other later. I hoped for Flash's, Will's, and my sake that this would be over soon. If there was a way to get through to Flash, it wasn't by pretending so we could find evidence on his dad. This was honestly kind of an ugly situation, but one that I had to follow through with. At least that's what I thought as I walked into school hoping the police car pulling out was simply bringing Flash home.

Will's POV

What did I do? I wondered for the thousandth time these past months. What happened to Tim? Am I supposed to do something about it? I missed him terribly. Over the summer he'd ignored so many of my calls that at one point I was convinced I had the wrong number. I hadn't. When I asked him about it he simply said, "That was all one night, Will! I'm sorry, but I couldn't answer then. It's not like I don't care." He did have a point. I did call around one-hundred times that night, but I really needed to tell him what was going on! I had just successfully made one of those volcanoes with backing soda and vinegar, and made it explode where I could still see the yellow and red separately. My favorite colors. The colors of Flash! I had always loved Flash, and I didn't know exactly why. He was just epic! I had read every comic I could find and watched everything related. And it made me ridiculously happy that we shared a last name! That was definitely the coolest part! My full name was William James Allen, and while I really didn't appreciate anyone calling me William, it sounded like a weird businessman or king or something, I LOVED being Will Allen! I walked into my, yeah, Flash-themed room, and fell on the bed to consider what was going on with Tim. What if, somehow, he actually was some type of superhero, and I was that annoying friend that kept trying to spoil it. Maybe he was doing something epic, and that's why he missed my calls! I knew that was silly though. I just wanted something to explain away why he didn't want to hang out anymore. If that was true, he would have told me though. It only made sense that way. We had been best friends for forever! I told him everything about me, and that would be no small secret. Maybe he just wanted older friends. I felt bad when he got held back in school, but I couldn't help celebrating a little bit! That meant we were in the same classes! And we could graduate together... But that didn't make me any closer in age to him. I was three years younger, and I was pretty sure there wasn't anything I could do about it. I was probably WAYYYY overthinking all of this. He was busy. It was simple! Once he got un-busy, we could continue on like nothing happened! Except now, maybe there could be three of us! A trio! I thought to myself smiling at the ceiling. This would be perfect! And Christie seemed pretty awesome! We were definitely going to stay friends. I could feel it. Deep down. And today is an epic start to it! It's like a spy mission! I couldn't make the time pass fast enough, and yet I couldn't find time for homework either. It was spoiling the whole mood. Time was ticking sooooo slowly! I went down and ate dinner, then the clock Only 7?! That was wrong! I'd been waiting for years!!! I REALLY shouldn't have said 8! "You want to come watch something?" Dad asked from the living room. I didn't really, but I had to do something to pass the time, or I was definitely going to die of suspense! "Sure!" I said deciding what we would watch in my head...Flash!

Christie's POV

"Are you ready yet?" Will asked excitedly over the phone. It was 7:47. "Yeah sure, but it's only 7" I responded.

"No, it's 7:48! That's a lot closer to eight. I think they went to the gym though..."

"Ok, I'll meet you there." I said hanging up and heading to the door.

It wasn't very dark when I went outside because it was still August, but the sun was setting. I walked towards the lit gym building down the street. Will was standing by the large glass window that allowed lots of light outside, as well as us to see perfectly well inside. "Hey, Will! See anything yet?"

"No," he paused for a second before adding his after-thought, "well, I mean, nothing surprising. I see them" He gestured toward a corner inside the gym where Tim and Flash were both working out, and seemingly enjoying each other, despite the earlier tension with the police. Flash stopped and sat, catching his breath for a minute before turning to say something to Tim. In turn Tim nodded, stood, and clasped Flash's hand in what seemed to be a good-bye. They said a little more before Flash headed out the door, Tim not to far behind, but he stopped in the doorway. Flash continued over some train tracks not far in the distance, and Tim watched until he disappeared into the shadows. Suddenly and without warning Tim ran off around the corner with a dramatic change of mood. Will and I attempted to follow him around the corner but lost sight. "Weird" Will stated with only a hint of real confusion in his voice as he looked around.

"Yeah," I said maybe more than weird... I continued searching the night sky for any signof where he went. That's when I heard a sound above and behind me. On the roof. It was quiet, but noticeable. I glanced to the roof where I saw Tim who quickly disappeared again into the dark. "I wonder where he went?" Will continued searching the landscape. He hadn't heard the noise. What seemed like mere seconds later I looked back to see Robin jumping down from where Tim had just stood. That's it. That confirms it. Something in me felt like I shouldn't tell Will what I had seen. If Tim wanted him to know, he would have told him by now. They were close. Wait, maybe Will already knows and didn't sayanything. That's when things got, once again, a bit more complicated. Robin was actually standing in front of us.