The Project •On Hold•

🐦 Chapter Seven 🐦

Dick navigated down the halls and the stairs. He reached the dining room for breakfast, where the butler, Alfred, was serving the teen's adoptive father breakfast.

"Good morning, Al!" He chirped as he took his seat.

"Good morning, Master Richard." The old man smiled as he plastered the boy's plate in front of him.

"Morning, Bruce."

No response, as usual.

"Good morning, Dickhead!" Jason greeted from the other side of the table, already having scarfed down half of his food.

"Morning, Jaybird." Dick stared eating his eggs, perfectly scrambled, as always. "I'm going to Conner Kent's house for a school project."

That got Bruce's attention. "Conner Kent? As in Clark Kent's son?"

"Yeah," Dick muttered, knowing that his father didn't get along well with the reporter. "I'm not saying that I'm friends with the guy, I got stuck with a bunch of losers for this project. Like this new girl, Artemis. She has these arm crutches and she acts introverted but she dresses like a slut. I don't know what her deal is."

He immediately felt awful. Hd had no idea why he said that. He didn't care what Artemis wore, even if she'd gotten dress coded more times than he could count on one hand in the week she'd been at school. He actually thought that Artemis was pretty awesome. She just kept to herself. He shook his head. "I didn't mean that, Artemis is great. I just don't get her. Actually the only person that I don't like is Raquel, now that I think about it."

"Good move there. I was about to stab you with my fork for slut shaming." Jason crunched on a piece of bacon. Dick wished his brother was kidding.

"Just don't become friends with that Kent kid. He's got skyrocketing anger issues." Was all Bruce said.

"You can't tell me who I can and can't be friends with," Dick mumbled, but Bruce was no longer listening. The ebony teen sighed, finishing his breakfast. He got up, grabbing his book bag, and walked out the door.

Making his way to school, he stopped at the West house to pick up Wally, who was waiting for him.

"Hey, Wall-man! What's up?"

"Not much." His friend responded, his voice devoid of emotion.

"Wally, is something wrong?"

"Nah, man. I'm good. Just tired. I was up all night. I got in trouble and had to stay up getting scolded for it and doing homework."

"Sucks, dude."

"No kidding. Now let's just leave this conversation, ok?"

"Ok."

The two boys walked along, past the public bus stop. A bus had just unloaded, and Dick recognized a couple of the people getting off. "Hey, Artemis! Raquel."

"Hey," Raquel replied.

Someone rudely shoved past Artemis and Raquel, knocking Raquel into a seat and Artemis to the floor. The dude muttered something about how they should've just taken the cripple bus.

"Yeah, yeah, and be late for school! Fuck you!" Artemis yelled after him.

"Good for nothing Bitch!"

Artemis just rolled her eyes, and attempted to get back to her feet, people rudely shoving past, muttering that she should've gotten off before they started getting on. The driver wasn't much better.

Despite Artemis' protests, Raquel hauled her to her feet. "C'mon, Art, let's just go. Mrs. Mellark will kill us if we're late to class."

Much to Artemis' chagrin, Raquel picked her up and passed her down to Wally, who took her. The redhead put the pouting blonde down, making sure she was steady before completely letting go.

Dick smiled at them. "You two are adorable."

"Shut up," They both groaned.

"Ah, but see? They don't object," Zatanna said, walking up behind them.

"Hi, Zee!" Dick said a stupid, dorky grin on his face. He hated the butterflies he got in his stomach when he talked to her. He had had a major crush on her for the last two years. "Wanna walk into school with us?"

"Well, duh." And with that, the group of five headed to face the torture called school.