Fawkes

High School: An Unexpectedly Sticky Place

"Canada. Well, Ottawa." I shrug half heartedly, "Yeah, my dad got some promotion and so we moved here."

Barbara Gordon seemed convinced, but Richard Grayson did not. He was staring at me so intensely that I thought the ground beneath my feet would start to catch fire. I stared right back at him, challenging him to say whatever was on his mind. Eventually, he looked away as Artemis frowned at us.

"It's second day today, so your first class is Science, which you have with Dick."

I stared at the boy again. His dark hair was slicked back with gel and his electric blue eyes matched my electric green ones. He was short, but I was shorter. He held his bag like he could drop it at any moment, something I knew was taught in primary self defence. After inspecting his stance, I realized he was in a half ready position, and it was directed at me. As if he was expecting me to start fighting him.

Either he knew something about me, or he was really bad with meeting new people.

I made a mental note to keep my eye on him, and followed Artemis as she led me and Dick to Science class.

The school was nice, really nice. The lockers that lined the walls were red and clean and so shiny I could almost see my reflection. The floor didn't squeak beneath my feet, and everyone walked on the right side of the halls. I almost gaped at everything I saw, just because of how regular it all was. My brain couldn't process what was going on; the place was too foreign.

Artemis was talking, but I couldn't hear her. A few people stared at me as I walked past, and I convinced myself it was because I was new, not because the knife wedged into my shoe was showing.

I checked anyway.

" . . . So here's your class." I tuned in as we stopped walking and Dick pushed past me to enter the door to my right. Artemis watched him with a confused look, and I scratched my neck.

"So lessons are just over an hour long," she said after tearing her gaze from the boy, "and after this you have History in room 306."

"There are three hundred and six rooms in this school?" I questioned in disbelief. That was more rooms than the largest headquarter I had been in. She laughed and shook her head.

"No. There are five floors and so it goes up to 500, but there's not 500 rooms."

"I don't get it."

"No one really does."

I sighed and entered the science class, which was a dimly lit, yet fairly large room with long tables facing the front. Each table had at least two sinks, and stools with students seated on them were placed on the floor facing the front of the class.

Most of the stools were full, except one spot where two empty seats sat lonely in a corner, and one available place; next to Richard Grayson.

I decided that I wasn't gonna let the unnecessary hatred of Dick stop me from sitting next to someone that would probably have to learn to accept me. So I stalked over and swung my bag off my shoulder, ready to plop down next to him when he suddenly turned to face me.

"That seat is taken."

His short, blunt comment made me scoff.