The Team (YJ Oneshots)

Even Rats Have Friends (Traught)

In Gotham North she fit in. She was just like everyone else. No one had lots of money, fancy clothes, or anything of value. Everyone's speech was tainted the same accent. They understood other people's  struggles because they were all suffering from same things. Classmates families were your family. They had your back both in school and on the streets.

In Gotham Academy, everything was different. She stuck out like a sore thumb. There was no unity. Everyone was filthy rich and based themselves on how much money they had. No one had the accent of Gotham City because they weren't from the city. They were from the south, which was so much different than the north. And in the academy, no one had your back. You couldn't trust anyone.

Artemis hated the idea of letting high school get to her. And she hated the cliche movies where they portrayed it like jungle full of snakes. But her school was just as helpless as Heathers. There were the jocks, the nerds, and theater kids. All of them were snobs with the fanciest cars and watches. They all tried to up one their "friends". She felt like a fish out of water and they made sure she knew it.

The archer didn't like the term bullying either, but that was the best way to describe what she was going through. The girls would gossip about her and the boys would make fun of her body. All of them would call her names. She ignored it for the most part. She did it for her mom, no matter how hard she wanted to drop out and transfer back to Gotham North. Plus, she had been through worse. At least she thought so until things got physical.

She wanted to hit them back, shove an arrow down their throats, and make them feel the pain she felt everyday. She wanted to get those assholes arrested and press charges. There was enough evidence for an easy case. But she couldn't. People would jump at the opportunity to accuse the ghetto girl of jumping them. She didn't want to deal with the brat kids anymore than she had to and definitely didn't want to deal with their snob parents. That would get her kicked out for sure. Her education was the only thing she had left. When all else failed, she still had her brain.

"The north side rat scurried into first period after all," A boy said as Artemis took her seat at her desk. The blonde bit her tongue and didn't give him the eye contact he probably wanted.

"Scurried? More like limped," The boy's girlfriend snickered. The archer ignored her too and took out her homework. She could already feel a headache growing. Last night she had been on a mission and got no sleep whatsoever. If that didn't put her on edge already, now she had to put up with this bullshit.

The boy continued talking about her, "I bet it's from getting piped out by another north side rat. They're all gang bangers anyways."

This made Artemis mad almost immediately. The best people she knew were from the north side. Many of them sacrificed their lives to care for their families or actively worked against everything that was set up against them. Some were in gangs or living a bad live style, but they were good people at heart.

"Settle down, kids!" The teacher yelled to get the classes attention. Artemis just tried to listen to the math lesson and ignored the couple behind her. The only power she had was her education, after all.

The day didn't get better after that. It only got worse. During second period, the kids behind Artemis threw gum rappers into her hair. In between third and second period, someone snatched her bag and threw it down to the first floor. She had to go all the way back down to get it and ended up being late for class. In gym class, someone threw a football into her nose and she started bleeding. The teacher wouldn't let her go to the nurse so she bleed on her white gym uniform. The kids laughed at her and she couldn't have felt more hopeless. During fifth period, she had study hall in the library. This was supposed to be the time where she got all her homework done but a group of jocks walked up behind her and snatched her out of her seat.