Christie's POV

As I suspected, my parents were plenty supportive of my trip with Robin, and I was nervously looking forward to it. It was going to be a little weird with just me and Robin. No one else. I was going to meet him that night after school. I got my stuff and prepared for the bus to come take me to school. I came right on time, and I hopped on the bus and was immediately invited to join Will, which I did. Tim was still next to Flash, but this time I knew why. "Hey!" Will greeted me with his usual excitement and wide, genuine smile. "Hey!" I smiled back. I took a quick glance around the bus for Mandy. She was up to something, and I wanted to know what. I spotted her after a minute. She was in the back of the bus, on a seat by herself. She was also taking notes. Still. I still wanted to know what it was about, but I couldn't see through her paper, and Will probably still had things to say. He finished the bus ride full of miscellaneous chatter and questions that had no specific answer. I went through our first classes without much chaos and headed to lunch. As I went to sit down, Mandy approached me, which was a little odd. "What have you been up to?" she asked, eyes slightly piercing and voice still light and quiet. Her notebook was still balanced on her hands, and her pencil was ready to forever cement anything she deemed worthy of keeping, which was an awful lot. I paused for a few seconds to figure the answer, only to remember it wasn't one I could share, "Not much, how about you?"

She shrugged and took note of it. Ok, then... I thought, confused. There was truly nothing worth noting about that at all, and yet here she was, keeping records.

"School and other stuff..." her voice drifted off to almost a whisper as she finished her answer, still partially focused on her papers. Something is happening with her... the way she said that... Something is definitely off...

She moved her attention back to me, "Do you have any plans after-school?" I thought for a minute. I felt bad for her. She didn't seem to have any friends. She always sat by herself, and she was pretty...unique, in a creepy way. Maybe I should invite her to join Will and me... Will's nice enough, he won't mind...

"Will and I were going to work on the project history project after school if you want to come." I offered. Will was coming to my house after school, and before, unbeknownst to him, I was leaving with Robin to work on the project for Ms. Burns' class. It'd be a good way to include her. She looked like she'd been caught slightly off-guard by the invitation but responded, "Is anyone else going to be there?"

"Uh, yeah, Will, maybe Tim."

She lit up a tiny bit, which was pretty creepy then responded, "Sure! Thanks." It might have been the most energy from her some far. That was even creepier. I gave a small, slightly awkward smile, and continued to sit with Will, and she walked off to her usual spot by herself.

"What was that?" Will asked, curiously.

"I was talking to Mandy." I responded, straight forward. "She seems really lonely, and she's always by herself, is it ok if she comes with us?"

Will looked a bit unsure, which was rather unusual for him. "Ummm, sure." He paused to think a second, then added, "That's nice! She is kinda creepy though."

I shrugged, not sure what to say to that, and we finished lunch with some more Will-inspired, random conversation.

After school ended, I saw Tim walking over my way, "Hey!" he smiled. Flash must have already left. "Hey!" I responded, happy to see him. After today, I was going to be seeing a lot of him, which was a little weird to think about. I decided not to think about it too hard, but I'd just met him. This was going to be interesting. When he reached me and was pretty well out of ear shot from everyone else, he quietly spoke, "You ready for tonight?" It was a rather subtle whisper, and I tried to do the same, "Yeah, pretty ready." I thought to my conversation with Mandy earlier, "Mandy and Will are going to come over to work on the history project if you want to join."

He thought about it for only a second before responding, "Yeah, sure," he said smiling. "I'll meet you there."

"Ok, cool!" I then began heading back to my house.

Tim's POV

I was walking to Christie's house to hang out and work on a history project with her, Will, and Mandy. I was glad for the opportunity to talk to Christie and get to know her more before our probably multi-day mission. Hopefully she doesn't think it's too weird... I thought it was pretty weird, but maybe that's just me? I was also really grateful to have a chance to talk to Will again, before he assumed our friendship was over forever. I walked up to the house that was the dead-end of a neighborhood street, but it wasn't creepy at all. As I reached the door, I noticed Will was already there, not Mandy? She was either running late or somewhere else in the house. It wouldn't be all bad if she didn't show. I knew for a fact that she was up to something, and with all I already had to do with Flash, I did not have time for that. Something felt off. I tried to brush it away, but the feeling was very there, and it wasn't usually wrong. As I stepped back on the porch to glance around the side, I was sure someone was there. This wasn't time for Robin though. It's probably a family member. I knew that wasn't true though. Ugh. I sighed. That's not why I'm here. I resolved to forget it and be a normal friend coming over to work on a school project, but my Robin side of things was definitely nagging at me. Someone was there. My internal conflict was decided for me as the door opened. Christie was standing there...unaware of the person stalking us around the corner...knock it off! I yelled at myself internally. Why is this bugging me so much? Somehow, I managed to keep a decently calm look on the outside, and it was a good thing. Will was here too, and this could get weird fast. "Hey, Tim!" her voice brought me, once again, from my racing thoughts and suspicions. "Hey!" I responded, noticing Christie back away from the door as a "welcome in" sign. I took it and suddenly a slight feeling of dread filled my stomach. Will must have been so mad...hurt. He didn't really seem to get all that mad. "Hey, Tim!" he said leaping from his seat a huge smile on his face. It almost hurt me how nice he was, when I was still mostly ignoring him with no explanation. This thing with Flash needed to end soon. "Hey!" I called back to him, pretending like I didn't notice what I was doing. "Sorry, we haven't been hanging out as much."

"That's ok, maybe soon!?"

"Yeah." I said with a fake, but believable smile, but internally I knew it probably wouldn't be all that soon.

"Will and I were about to play 'Sorry', do you want to play that or something else?"

I smiled a bit to myself; I should have known. We would not be working on history today. Will was here. This would not be the first time he'd agreed to get together to work on homework and ditched it for fun instead. Yet he was ahead of me in school.

"Sure." I said with a half shrug. I was NOT good at 'Sorry', but it was still fun. We sat down to play, Christie pulling the pieces out of the box. "What color?"

I wasn't sure who that was directed at, but she was holding red and although she glanced at both of us, I knew Will would probably have a stronger opinion than I would, so I waited for his answer. "Red!" He shouted out, excitedly. I tried not to let my smile be that obvious. He was not the most observant person. Christie was clearly planning on being red, that's why she kept holding it. Clearly to me. I corrected myself. I was very used to reading body language and hearing things that weren't spoken yet. Will, well, he wasn't. Although, knowing him, he may have fought for his red anyway. He had to use Flash colors. If not red, yellow.

"But, what about blue?" Christie asked, completely confirming my suspicion. She looked pretty determined to hold on to red as well, so this would be interesting.

"But...red???" Will drew out, hoping for an easy win. It wasn't coming. I discretely reached for green, knowing this could go on a bit, and no one ever wanted green for some reason. It was the universally rejected color, but it was also my color. So, I was cool with it. Christie was still holding red with her, but Will was inching closer. Christie slowly moved it higher, "How about the epic yellow? You know you want it."

It took a bit of will power not to laugh at the scene. Internally I noted how Will loved to pronounce anything containing his name...Will-power. He always emphasized it.

"But... blue would...match your shirt!" Will retorted, certain that was a solid argument.

"Oooook, fine. Just this time..." Christie ended, giving Will the pieces as if it might cause physical pain. "Yay! Thanks!" Will celebrated, "Now, we can start!"

Just then, someone knocked on the door. You've got to be kidding?! I thought to myself. I wasn't aggravated though. Actually, I was greatly amused. Mandy was here, and this whole thing would start all over, because there was no way Mandy didn't want red. Christie got up to answer the door, but we all knew who it was. Sure enough, Mandy was standing there, and as Christie greeted her, "Oh, hi! Glad you could make it!" I was sure Mandy was staring right through my head into all the secrets I'd ever kept from anyone. I had tangled with Joker and Harley, and Mandy, looking at me, was unnerving me. She looked back at Christie so naturally I almost doubted it was ever as creepy and direct as it felt, "Yeah! Thanks for inviting me." She smiled, but it looked fake to me. I was definitely paranoid about her. Would you stop it?! I told my brain again, but I knew she was the person around the corner. She was giving me the same feeling right now. "We were just about to play 'Sorry', but now that you're here, do you want to play something else?" Christie asked. Apparently, she was incapable of playing with blue pieces. I glanced back to Will who looked as if someone had dashed all his hopes for the week. I forced myself not to smirk as I looked back to Mandy curious for her answer. "How about 'Clue'?" She asked. That added up. I played 'Clue' a lot as far as games go, but I was pretty great at it, even though I still almost always lost. I was playing against a detective who bases a good part of his life on deciphering truth from lies off facial expression and muscle tension. I was bound to lose. "Uh, sure!" Christie responded. They walked in, closing the door. Mandy was probably way nicer and less scheming than I thought, but my gut feeling was screaming otherwise. We all walked back to the table where it'd been set up. I began putting the 'Sorry' pieces back into their box while Christie, followed loosely by Mandy, went to find 'Clue'. Will looked up to me disappointment, but a hint that he also found this a funny situation covering his face, "I just got red!" He whispered loudly as he dropped said piece into the box I was holding. He looked like he was giving up a prized possession, not a small piece of plastic. "You can always be Ms. Scarlett?" I offered jokingly, "She's red."

Will smiled fully back at me, which was exactly what I wanted from him. I missed him. Probably not anywhere close to how he missed me, but I missed him. Christie and Mandy returned with our second game choice, placed it on the table, and began unpacking the pieces as everyone sat down. I'd put the 'Sorry' box off to the side. Will was sitting on the edge of the table, Christie was next to him on one side, me on the other, and Mandy was on Christie's other side. "Which character?" Christie asked a little nervously, as she should be. That was a risky question. She didn't grab any this time, but her gaze on Ms. Scarlett, then back to Mandy, was not lost on me. Will immediately reached for Col. Mustard, Flash's other color. Yellow. As soon as he did, Mandy quietly reached for Ms. Scarlett. Christie's choice. I had to literally bite my lip to restrain myself from laughing out loud. They were so naïve! I was pretty sure I let out something resembling a laugh anyway, but no one seemed to notice. Christie looked betrayed in the nicest, most subtle way possible. This was pure comedy! I felt safe enough going for my choice, Prof. Plum. I put him on my spot and waited for the game to begin. Christie, very reluctantly and with the flattest emotion, grabbed Mrs. Peacock and put in in place. She then shuffled and passed out the cards. I immediately went to my habit of watching everyone's first reaction to their cards. The first reaction could tell you things. I ignored mine, holding them as if I were processing them, but I was actually scanning everyone's faces. Will definitely had Col. Mustard. He didn't like being guilty, and he looked relieved at the sight of his third card. His first was the dining room. As soon as he picked it up, his eyes darted to the space on the board. The second, I wasn't so sure about, but I'd bet it was a weapon. He looked a bit indifferent to it, as people typically were. Mandy had a small smirk flipping to her last card. Probably a person, maybe herself? I couldn't tell if Mandy was the type that would or wouldn't want to be guilty, so I didn't write anything. Then I realized everyone was done writing theirs, and I hadn't paid any attention to mine. I could write them later. I didn't want to make everyone wait. Less than ten minutes later I knew who, where, and with what. Will gave out clues like it was nothing, and he had no idea. I smiled to myself, but decided to let the game continue. I could confirm some things anyway. Will made this easy. I did eventually make my call... and was right. As we went to start over, I noticed Christie looked determined to pull out the win this time. She must be a little more competitive than I thought...I don't think so... I trash talked inwardly. I didn't know her well enough to say it... yet. Sure enough, I pulled out the win again, but I couldn't help but wonder how close everyone else had gotten. I was pretty sure I'd get to like Christie as Cardinal. Hopefully she'd feel likewise.

Christie's POV

Pretty quickly over an hour had passed. It was fun, but how on earth did Tim win every round so fast?! Then I answered my own question, he probably does that a lot... We hadn't worked on history at all, but that was ok. This was way more fun anyway. Mandy had left and Will was leaving. Tim had left earlier, but we wouldn't be too long before we left for my first mission. I was hyped, but I was nervous too. Does Robin really know enough to lead this without Batman? What if I mess up? What if we can't find him? What would we tell Batman? We're going to be so far away... I wasn't sure the answer to any of those questions...yet...but I would soon. Very soon.