An Inaudible Irritation

1. Introduction

With the end of summer break came the start of a new semester of school.

Raven, or rather Rachel, as she goes by in public, dreaded today. Not only was she a social outcast, but she didn't fit in. At all. Just because she wore a uniform didn't mean she felt like she belonged there.

In all honesty, Raven has never felt like she belonged anywhere. Not as Raven or Rachel Roth. Either way, she was the daughter of darkness. That was something she couldn't just ignore.

Going to public school was an idea from her legal guardian, Kory. The older girl had taken Raven into her own home like a younger sister. When she came to Earth, Kory's team of teenage superheroes, the Teen Titans, welcomed her with open arms, despite where she was from and what she was capable of.

"Just please try to be a normal teenager, Raven, and make some new friends," Kory said as she came to a stop in the car. "I want to see you happy."

Raven looked at her, forcing a smile. "I'll try my best," she assured. Kory returned the smile as she watched her get out of the car.

After Kory had dropped her off for the first day, she stood outside the large building, watching other teenagers around her age go inside the building with smiles on their faces. She took a deep breath before walking inside the doors of the building.

Once she was handed her schedule, she made her way towards her new locker and started reading over the paper as she placed some of her things inside. Her mind calmed down once she saw what classes she had. English, History, Physical Education, and Chemistry. They weren't too bad. Well, besides the gym class, anyways.

She ended up finding an empty desk inside the English classroom and took a seat. While waiting on the teacher to show up, she let out a long yawn.

After English came History, which was the most boring class Raven had ever been to. In fact, she got in trouble for falling asleep on the first day. Gym wasn't as bad as she'd expected, the coach wasn't harsh and gave them easy tasks. Although the bland uniform was quite humiliating. Lunch was definitely her favorite part of the day, considering that the school had a nice advantage for upperclassmen, which was allowing them to eat outside in the atrium.

The day went on slowly, but Raven was finally in her last class of the day; Chemistry.

"Rachel Roth," the teacher called.

Raven met his gaze before answering. "Present," she sheepishly spoke. It was the first time she'd spoken in front of people today, considering she still hadn't made a friend.

The teacher checked off her name and continued calling roll.

"Damian Wayne," he called. When he got no response, he called it again. The boy in front of her hesitantly raised his hand and the teacher nodded and apologized before checking his name off.

Raven rested her chin in her hand as her elbow was propped on the desk. The teacher had such a monotone voice that she could tell he would be boring.

"I'm Mister Vincent. All you will need for this class is a composition notebook, binder, and pencils. I'll provide everything else for you," the teacher informed the class as he wrote his name on the chalkboard.

Raven began to tune the teacher out after that. The school day was almost over and she couldn't wait to go home and take a nap.

All she could do was daydream about the rest of her day as the teacher rambled on. It wasn't until the teacher called on her and the entire class looked back at her that she snapped out of her thoughts.

"You may read now, Miss Roth," Mr. Vincent informed her.

Raven cleared her throat as she glanced down at the paper that had been passed out. The class syllabus. She took a deep breath before reading a random sentence of the letter.

"Perfect," Mr. Vincent complimented before moving onto the next student. Raven let out a relieved sigh as she sunk back in her chair.

"Mister Darga," Mr. Vincent called as he looked at the boy sitting next to Damian.

The boy seemed to panic and looked over at Damian. "Um, where are we at?" he whispered. When Damian didn't respond, the boy nudged his shoulder. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Damian slowly turned his head to look at the boy, a confused expression on his face. People started turning their heads to look at the two boys.

"Why are you giving me that stupid look?" the boy questioned as he stood up from his seat, glaring down at Damian.

Raven tried not to focus on her abilities during school, but she couldn't help but sense both of the boys anger building up.

"Suren you're a Junior, act like it," Mr. Vincent ordered as he looked at the boy.

Damian narrowed his eyes and stood up to face the boy who must be Suren. That's when Suren started laughing. "You ain't gonna do noth-" Suren started to taunt, but was cut off as Damian swiftly raised a closed fist up and swung it across his face.

The entire class watched the scene with wide eyes.

Mr. Vincent slammed his fist against the chalkboard. "Enough! Both of you, go to the principal's office. Now. I will not tolerate such childish behavior in my classroom."

"Stupid punk," Suren said as he pushed Damian against his desk before he grabbed his bag and stormed out of the classroom, making sure to slam the door behind him.

Damian bent down to grab his things as well. Raven's eyes widened the slightest when he met her gaze as he raised back up. That's when she noticed the tiny device in his ear. She assumed it was a hearing aid- Oh.

He's deaf.

She watched as he turned around and left the classroom as well, closing the door behind him. Other students around her were quietly gossiping back and forth.

"Dude, Suren just got his shit rocked by a deaf kid!" a boy closeby said, causing a couple of others to giggle.

"That's enough," Mr. Vincent scolded as he continued with his lecture as if the scene didn't just happen.

Raven tuned out everyone else as she laid back in her chair, letting her mind race with thoughts.

This was going to be a long semester.