𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑

-𝟏. 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚.

—1.

Being the manager of the track team wasn't exactly what [name] had in mind for her school year. After, embarrassingly enough, not doing so well at the timings when trying out for the actual team, she was prepared to move on and just pass the rest of her classes anyways.

Unfortunately, that wasn't what fucking fate had in mind.

An email appeared in her inbox in second-to-last period, and knowing she had already read all of her other emails, she opened it hesitantly.

[name] felt her shoulders un-tense as she read it. Apparently, the coaches had talked about it with eachother, and they decided to make her manager of the entire team. 'Vice-coach', as they put it. And she had to come to every practice plus the meets. Just....Just swell, huh?

"...Great way to start the week." She heaved a sigh, rolling her shoulders back and leaning into the chair. She should say no, really. It was added stress, and she would've preferred to be running, but for some reason...Maybe she was just bored or something. That was the only logical explanation for when her fingers moved on the keyboard and typed up a response.

'Yes, I would be honored! I'll come to practice today, thank you for thinking of me.'

"What's got you all cheery?" A voice spoke up next to her. The science room was set up in teams of four people, and her team was actually pretty nice. Not too loud, not too quiet.

The person who had spoke up was the one she didn't like too much, unfortunately. They were friends, sure, but it was...An on-and-off thing. He was one of the most nerdy and popular guys in the school. Uhh..What was the name? Tim Drake.

Everyone knew him. Not everyone liked him. And, of course, she just had to have one of the most complicated relationships with him. Drunken after an argument with his father, he had muttered. When he had held her waist tightly, an odd glint in his eye, before whispering. "I've loved you for years." And then blacked out. She would've laughed at the situation if it didn't feel so tense.

She felt something was up. He probably meant it as a metaphor for whatever, but still.

...And they continued being friends afterward. Even if being 'friends' included him having screenshots of all of their texts. (His favorites were her checking on him after driving him home that night.) Even if being 'friends' meant he gained the confidence to watch her every night.

He was a weird guy. She was a weird-ish girl. The kind that ticked some people off, and the kind that attracted the wrong kinds of attention.

[name] blinked out of her internal rant with a huff of a breath.

"Well, I just got an emai—"

She didn't even get her sentence out before he leaned over, head practically on her shoulder while scanning the words of the email with his stupidly striking sapphire eyes. A huff of a breath.

"You gonna join? I wouldn't mind, we could use the morale boost from having a girlie like you with us—" She cut him off this time with a smack on the arm. Jesus, always making it weird. He only laughed, one of those low chuckles that made one wonder whether their prior words were really a joke or not.

"Yeah, yeah, I already answered the coach's email dumbass. I'm coming to practice today." She rolled her eyes, shifting just the slightest bit away from Tim. He had a habit of invading her personal space.

He smiled with the brightness of a thousand suns. "Great! I'll see you then, huh?" [name] wished it was the night, finding true solace in the moon. She nodded nonetheless. Then, as if planned or on cue, the bell rang.

One more period before this damn practice. It was odd, [name] had a nagging feeling in her chest that...Well, something bad was gonna happen. Just wasn't sure what.

Gathering her belongings, decidingly ignoring the raking gaze of Tim's eyes on her every movement. Or was it his? Gods, she had no idea. Like mentioned before, she had mixed feelings on the guy. It felt like a headache coming on with every interaction, there were so many jumbled signals.

[name] rolled her shoulders back until they sounded a crack, eyes trailing to meet Tim's.

"See ya then."

With that, she went over to her next period. Not a long walk through the halls, and it was easy to slip by when she just greeted some friends and kept walking.

English class was...interesting, to be honest. She sat next to the most popular guy in school. Tim's brother, Dick Grayson. Weird though, not the same last name? Maybe they're adopted or something. She didn't care enough to ask.

When she entered, he wasn't even there. Thanking the gods for the lessened obnoxiousness for the end of the way, she slipped into her seat and pulled out her notebook, about to take the notes already on the board before two hands slammed on either side of her on the desk, caging her in from behind.

A shiver went down her spine, frozen in place as her hands itched to move. She needed to— Who— The figure behind her leant down to her ear, completely uncaring of the — Were there really only 2 students in the class right now? Where was the teacher? — environment.

Blowing a hot puff of air on her earlobe, the figure's grin grew.

"Don't look so scared, just me, princess."

And suddenly she gained half the mind to take her notebook and smack him in the face with it. Turning around, she was met with the wincing and mostly amused face of Dick Grayson. Unfazed from a goddamn hardcover book straight to that smirking face.

"I should've pulled way fucking worse on you, Dickhead. Asshole. Fuckin' cunt—"

She swore like a sailor, shaking the nerves from her bones. He put his arms up in mock surrender, sweatdropping and laughing at her.

"D'awh, that was adorable, princess! Maybe next time you'll actually lay a scratch." She could practically hear the utter taunt in his voice and had to resist the urge to not kick him in his namesake. Obnoxiousness for last period had arrived ten times worse than any other day.

[name] grumbled something along the lines of 'fuck you', flipping him off as she sat back down and started taking notes again. Poor girlie just wanted to get through the school year at this point, no more nuisances or anything along those lines.

Dick decided it was a great idea to pull his chair right next to hers, dedicating the next two minutes to not saying a word but poking different parts of her body. Whatever skin exposed to him, just trying to piss her off. Then, seemingly getting bored of that when he got no reaction, he laid his head on her lap.

Just to piss her off. Sure, not to try and melt into the feeling of his head in her thighs. She furrowed a brow at the behaviour, nudging his head away just as the class had come back from wherever they had gone.

The teacher scolded Dick and told him to get off [name], to which his gaze darkened an odd amount but switched back just as quickly. Apparently, the class had gotten to go on a walk — A memo [name] was not let into. Dick knew, he just assumed she didn't and wanted some alone time.

Slicking back his ravenette hair, earning a swoon from across the classroom, the boy retreated to his seat, still sneaking glances over at [name]. She heaved a sigh, adjusting her own hair before paying attention to the lesson.

The rest of the period went relatively well. Dick tried to pick up a few conversations with [name] which she shot down, but besides that? Suspiciously alright.

But when the bell rang this time, there was that same feeling of trepidation turned deep in the pit of her stomach. Like an eagle to an aerie, she got the notion that this was something she might need to get accustomed to.

It was time for practice.