JADE (young justice/robin)

12. injustice

Gotham
September 28, 13:02 EDT

jade.

"Whatcha workin' on?"

I winced, as Dick's hands roughly grabbed me, putting far too much pressure on my stitches. He pulled away instantly, startled by my reaction. "Flu shot," I lied, holding my arm bracingly.

"My bad," he apologized, sitting down next to me. "I was asking what you were working on. And since when do you wear glasses?"

"For reading," I pushed them further up my nose again.

"Nerdy," he laughed.

I gave him an exhausted look before turning back to the page in front me, frustratedly erasing the same problem for the millionth time. Another one of the Bat's cruel jokes: placing me in a bunch of classes I don't understand, having never gone to school before.

"You messed it up here," he pointed higher up on the page.

"No I didn't," I argued immediately.

"Yeah, you did. Here give me," he took the pencil and notebook from me, resolving the problem. "See?"

I took the notebook back from him with a big frown. "Yeah."

"You know, if you need help with Calc, I could—"

"No."

"Come on, it'll be fun," he whined.

"No."

"Please," he begged. "We can make a deal out of it."

The last deal I made's been biting me in the ass recently.

"I help you with Calc and you go with me to the Homecoming Festival," he suggested.

"That's it?" I said skeptically.

"So you're in?"

I couldn't really understand why I was agreeing to it, but I surrendered, "Yeah."

"Great, it's a date."

I sighed, putting my things away, until my eyes widened. "Wait, I didn't say—" but I turned to find that Dick was already gone. Ugh, great.

I left with all my things, along with the duffel that happened to be stuffed with my uniform. I'd promised Artemis I'd get an early day of training in with her, but that's also because she wouldn't stop pestering me about Birdie. She insisted on knowing every useless detail, especially now that she was aware I could talk.

To be honest, I didn't really know what to say about it. That doesn't mean it isn't on my mind, though, because trust me, it is.  I keep replaying in my head the way his hands gripped my waist, or the way his lips felt against mine and every time I did, it made my stomach flutter. If anything all I really wanted to do was grab him and continue where we left off. Maybe I could the next time I see him, whenever that is.

I headed back to the same alley, checking left and right to make sure no one was around, before I started changing. I stripped the school uniform for the clearly better option, fixing my hair up and sliding the goggles on. When I turned back around, I immediately, dropped to the floor to dodge the massive mace swinging at my head. I tumbled over myself, landing back on my feet, my staff already extending in my hand.

"You're coming with me, little girl," Sportsmaster said, swinging the mace in circles at his side.

I swung the staff up. Not likely.

Sportsmaster lunged, swinging the mace at me again, but I blocked with the staff, letting the chain wrap around it. I tugged hard, stealing the mace from his grasp and letting it fall elsewhere on the floor.