Highschool Hell [open]

[Raven]

This was pointless, she knew this, she only wished she could get out of it. She was strung out. They were the Teen Titans, thye were used to doing abnormal hours. Wake up early, stay up all night, they were at the mercy of the villians and evil-doers of the city. At least then they were able to spend whatever free time they had relaxing and hanging out. Now their free time was filled with the drivel their professors had to spoonfeed the students, and doing the massive amounts of homework they assigned. She hadn't been able to even meditate this morning, something she usually got up extra early for, because someone in the tower thought it would be a good idea to tamper with her alarm clock as a practical joke.

So Raven, being Raven, was a little cranky. Even more so now that she had to start going by Rachel Roth again. She disliked the name, it was plane and reminded her daily of her mother. It was no secret that she had issues with her parental units. That was understandeable. One was a demon and the other rarely even speaks to her. So there she was in the cafeteria with a thermos of herbal tea, she was picking at a tray full of food she probably wasn't going to eat. She lived with a bunch of teenagers, so thier meals were rarely five star, but she usually didn't have to worry about her food running off her plate, which she was sure the "meatloaf" was about to do.

She was soooo going to murder Robin for this later, along with whomever's brilliant plan it was to make them come to this infernal hellhole. she pushed the tray away from her, becoming rather disturbed by the food the school was feeding the town's teenagers. 'And they wonder why the crime rate is so high.' She thought sarcastically to herself. She was just thankful she had gotten up early enough to put some tea into a thermos so she could have it now. She seriously needed something to calm down her nerves or she was going to hurt someone, or multiple someones.

She was wearing a pair of jeans, it felt weird to have her legs covered after wearing nothing but her leotard and cape for so long. She also had a deep purple tank top on, and a black hoodie over it. She had already gotten scolded for having her hood up a few times that morning, and she was not happy about it.

She looked around the room, hoping to see really any recognizeable faces. So far she was the first of the heroes to enter the cafeteria. She was getting odd looks from some of the students around her, the would glance over turn around and snicker. The next time the did so she sneered at them, oh how she wished she could make them fear her, just a little. She rested her forehead on the palm of her hand, despite the gem on her forehead burrowing into her hand. She could care less at this point.

[Batgirl]

Cass hated it here. She hated every single thing about her high school experience thus far. Her jaw was popping and tensing beyond the reach of her considerable self-control, all due to how much she'd found herself grinding her teeth in response to the antagonizing nature of everything she encountered here. From the academics to the social dynamics, Cass was completely out of her element. Additionally, it was taking away from time that could be spent as Batgirl, an identity she was far more proud of than that of Cassandra Cain.

First there were the classes. Though she had been placed in courses which were exclusively remedial or second language, it was incredibly obvious to herself and everyone else that her knowledge base was still inferior to anyone else's there. She got by, more often than not, by reading the instructor's body language to help indicate what it was they expected her to do or say, rather than actually understanding it herself. And reading... reading was taxing, much as she tried to develop it. She was supposed to be making her way through a book called "Green Eggs and Ham"; despite the small blessing of many phrases being repeated enough that deciphering them once meant she knew what was written on half of several other pages, it was a tedious and frustrating task.

The people here made less sense than the classes. Every nuance of their body language inflicted importance and conflict into petty and irrelevant matters. And then there were the play of power between various secular groups. Some made sense, like the "nerds" fearing the "jocks" for their superior physical capabilities. Others gave the simple and direct-minded Cass a headache, such as the way the diminutive cheerleaders held so much power by sending vibrant signals with their body language that violently clashed with their neutral or even kind words. Cass had actually briefly considered joining them to better understand this subtle form of control, but then she'd seen the revealing uniforms they wore.

That was another discomfort here, Cass noted with a grimace as she tugged the sleeves of her turtle-neck shirt into her palms to make sure they didn't accidentally slide further up on her arms. Almost all the girls seemed to wear clothes which left a significant amount of their skin open and she could see in everyone's body language the way her extremely covering outfits were out of place. But she knew better, knew that exposing the criss-crossed mesh of scars that covered her limbs and torso would make them look at her even worse; she'd learned that before coming here.

Though she was rather hungry and not at all a picky eater, Cass suddenly slammed her tray down violently only shortly after getting into the cafeteria line. She couldn't stand it. The proximity of all the other students jostling and shuffling in line screamed at every beaten-in instinct of her nerves for her to lash out and incapacitate them before they could do worse to her. Striding swiftly away from the congested line, Cass made a bee-line for Raven as soon as she saw her. They were hardly close but the serene Titan was definitely an improvement on any other available company.

"Don't like it here." Cass stated in her usual blunt fashion as she sat down heavily across from Raven. Shoulders hunched and white-knuckled fists clenched against the table, her glaring eyes darted around constantly as she watched everyone around them with a rapidly growing level of unease.

[Raven]

Raven watched their most recent addition to the team enter the cafeteria. She seemed uncomfortable and Raven understood that all too well. She remembered when she first met the Titans, she was antisocial but not nearly to the extent that the Batgirl was. She could understand but only on the most basic level, and she did not want to project arrogance by assuming she knew what the girl was feeling.

She snorted at her own convoluted thought process. She was an empath of course she knew what she was feeling, but that wasn't how she meant it in her head. Her time in this school was already starting to melt her brain. She knew everything the teachers were teaching, she knew that wasn't the case for many of the Titans. Batgirl, for example, was in remedial courses, but not because of lack of intelligence. More because of lack of social interaction and language skills. She could predict Starfire would be put in some of the same classes. considering her origin from another planet. They did not need to learn the same things, or so she assumed.

She was an extra-planar being rather then extraterrestrial, but she still lacked the more basic knowledge of these people when she came here. Among needing multiple language skills to read up on this plane's occult and origins she lived on her own for quite some time before joining the Teen Titans.

She smiled at the girl when she sat down, she noticed she did not get her food from the lunch line. "You are preaching to the choir." Raven snorted. She glanced back at her own revolting looking lunch

"If you want mine you can have it. I don't personally think I could stomach it." She said, looking over to the girl. She was not particularly verbal but Raven thought she could try to start something that resembled a conversation to be friendly. She was not the type to talk, preferring to read or meditate or anything, but she could use a distraction from all of the emotions bouncing around the room.

[Mika Chu Ichimaru]

Mika Chu fiddled with her riding goggles, as she walked towards the cafeteria. Her mind everywhere but at the school. She wished she could just leave the school, and go get some sushi or something, even though she wasn't hungry. Her brother had warned her before she left the house this morning that she was to stay at the school. She ran her right hand through her hair making it stick up like pink spikes. She smiled softly before running both hands through it making the spikes a little less rough. She grabbed the handle of the door to the cafeteria and opened the door roughly, throwing it wide open and smiling at the people inside.

She looked at everyone before ducking into the lunch line and grabbing a bottle of apple juice and opening it slowly. She took a drink, before moving over to the cashier, she pulled out the money the lady asked for and handed it to her with a smile. “Thank you,” the lady said and Mika smiled and nodded as she took another drink then twisted the top back on before skipping off towards an empty table. She slide into a seat, and looked around again. She tapped her fingers on the table, as her attention fell on the two girls sitting at the table in front of her, she hadn't seen them before. Mika shrugged a second before opening her bottle and taking a drink then she put the lid back on the bottle before standing up.

She walked over to the two other girl's table and smiled, ”Moshi Moshi,” She said out of pure habit before shaking her head slightly. ”Hey, are you guys new?” She asked throwing her bottle up in the air and watching it flip before catching it in her hand then looking back at the girls, waiting for a response, with a smile on her face.

((Is this color too hard to see?))

[Batgirl]

Preaching to the choir? Cass was not familiar with the terms of "preaching" or "choir". However, while she continued to mull over what the words might mean on their own, Raven's body language filled in what she was saying with the phrase in its entirety. She too disliked high school and understood Cass's own discomfort. Though she hated it, Batgirl found that a small inner voice was questioning Batman's and his peer's decision to let them be sent here.

She was reaching for Raven's tray of food at practically the same time as the words offering it were leaving the other Titan's lips, posture having already indicated to Cass her companion's disinterest in eating the meal. For her part, she immediately dug into the watery meatloaf without another word. It certainly didn't compare to Alfred's cooking, but she'd also definitely had worse. Despite her thieving skills, her desire to maintain a low profile had led to a less-than-desirable cuisine in her years on the streets. And before that, Cain had fed her only tasteless nutrition bars in order to maintain her total focus on her training and conditioning.

Her table manners leaving something to desired, both her experiences with her father and as a transient having taught her to shovel down food before something or someone violently interfered, the lunch tray was wiped clean in under a minute. Cass registered the less-than-favorable perceptions of her eating habits in several nearby-sitting students' body language and paused, a memory of something Alfred mentioned compelling her to awkwardly pick up a napkin and slowly wipe her mouth, glaring over the top of the paper wipe the entire time.

She knew the pink-haired girl was going to come over to them before she took her first step, watching the goggle-wearing student's approach suspiciously the entire way. Moshi moshi? The nuances of the newcomer's form suggested it was a greeting and Cass frowned at that; why did verbal language have so many different ways to send the same exact message? Hi, hello, hey... for her part, Cass offered none of those in return. Still eying the girl and sizing up her threat level, which seemed negligible at least, she responded to her question in a low monotone.

"Yes. New."

[Raven]

Cassandra's manners left a lot to be desired, but living with Cyborg and Beast Boy, she had gotten over being irked by improper table manners. She honestly could care less, but she notices some of the other kids staring. Really, was someone eating all that intrigueing to them.

Raven noticed the briefly confused look Cassandra's face held, before she understood. She opened her mouth to explain before the pink haired girl came by. She really didn't need to be bombarded with the curious questions brought on by her being one to the "new kids", and quite honestly she hated that kinf of thing. She knew they would not really befriend her, there were very few people willing to endure her less than sociable temperment.

She sighed, knowing what was coming, she wondered breifly if the girl was put up to it. Usually those like herself and Batgirl would be some of the last "new kids" to be explored. She was the resident goth, dark colored ripped up jeans, and dark clothing said it all. She knew that particular social clique did not tend to be high up on the highschool food chain, not that she minded. She preferred not to be the center of attention. Cassandra would most likely be labeled stuck up, considering she tende dnot to talk to a lot of poeple, and when she did her voice either lacked emotion or she would answer in breif one to two word sentences. In some cases, both. Labels were one of the many reasons she hated the highschool setting. Mostly because no one ever knew what they were talking about when adressing another cliques label.

If it weren't for the Titan's breif stint in Japan she would not have known what the girl's greeting meant. Instead at the greeting Raven placed on a fake smile, it didn't reach her eyes but she figured she could at least attempt to be sociable. She merely nodded at the girl's statement considering Cassandra pretty much covered the question, if in a very blunt way, Raven did not feel the need to elaborate in any way so she didn't say anything.

[/blockquote]

[Mika Chu Ichimaru]

Mika looked at the girl that spoke, 'Social butterfly aren't you?' she thought but keep the smile on her face. ”I'm Mika Chu Ichimaru,” She said brightly. She always mentioned her middle name, she loved the way it fit in with the rest of her name. She threw the bottle up again in a useless gesture to entertain herself. She glanced around at some of the other students who seemed shocked, and some slightly curious that she was talking to these 'strange' new kids. She brought her attention back to the girls in front of her, ”What are you guy's names?”

She asked smiling again and sitting the bottle on the edge of the table. She was getting an uneasy feeling that the girls didn't really want her to be talking to them. It wouldn't be the first time that Mika had talked to someone that didn't technically want her talking to them, but she had an uneasy feeling that these girls could be a threat if she wasn't careful. She pushed those worries away as she waited for an answer. Her eyes casually drifting around the cafeteria again, 'If we have these new kids, I wonder how many more we will have?'

[Batgirl]

"Cassandra." Responding once more in her usually curt and monotonous style, Cass assumed Raven could introduce herself on her own just fine. Her gaze rapidly snapped between the other Titan and Mika, as she'd introduced herself, only a sparse degree of her ever-vigilante attention on the rest of the room now; it was just enough to note the surprise, some of it so obvious that she didn't need to be fluent in body language to see it, of several other students at the pink-haired girl's act of speaking to Cass and Raven. Perhaps they were not quite as oblivious to the two Titan's own body language, not exactly of the socially inviting variety.

Most forms of deception were wasted on Cass. As a result, seeing them attempted often irked her sensibilities. Neither the smile on Mika's nor Raven's faces were particularly genuine. Batgirl could see that her own words, though she herself considered them to be perfectly concise answers, mildly offended their companion. She also saw brief, subtle, notes of fear and trepidation; apparently Mika didn't totally miss the two Titan's disinterest in her advances either.

As for Raven, her posture screamed of suspicion and unnease to Cass. It was almost as though she was expecting an attack from Mika although, after witnessing the other Titan in combat several times now, Batgirl could tell that was not exactly the case. She frowned, seeing no signs of immediate threat in Mika's own movements herself. Rolling her eyes, a gesture she'd only recently picked up, Cass pointed to the bench space next to her and quirked a brow at Mika.

"Sit." Her attention shifting once more back to darting around to observe the rest of the cafeteria, sparing a few murderous-looking glares at students who stared at the trio too long, she addressed her next words to Mika and Raven both.

"Nobody here to hurt nobody." This whole setting had Cass on edge enough, so she couldn't really stomach the tension her two companions had been giving off in their body language, not when she could tell neither was immediately necessary. Not having anything else to say on the matter, the majority of Batgirl's attention went back to mentally cataloging the strange patterns of movement and interaction of the high school students surrounding them. She'd been raised to prepare for combat at any given moment and knowing the terrain was critical to victory, after all.

[Raven]

"Rav-Rachel Roth" She said, mentally scolding herself for almost giving away her "real name". It had been so long since she asked anyone to call her by it and Secret Identities had even been sort-of secret within the team. Well not so much a secret as something that never really came up. They were a bunch of practically orphaned teenagers living together, as superheroes. They really didn't need secret identities. Sure, Robin has Batman, and Beast Boy was technically adopted, they still didn't have their true parents. She did, but an absentee mother and a demon father didn't really count.

And then Cas asked the girl to sit. Raven didn't hate this girl, it was just she was not the most sociable person around. It wasn't that she didn't like socializing. She enjoyed it well enough when it was with her team, or the other Titans or really anyone who understood people like them, but this was different. This was a human highschool, one where no one was supposed to know who they were and she hated it. She liked Cassandra well enough but she was a relatively new member of their little team, what she wouldn't give for Robin, or Cyborg or Starfire, hell even Beast Boy to come and save her. Someone more easily sociable than her to take over the conversation because she knew Cas was most likely not going to be the one to do it.

She was just going to have to grin and bear it, or so the saying said. She didn't want to make a horrible impression because she could feel the other students studying them. Yes they were new, why the hell did that make them so fascinating? She wondered idly. She didn't sit down and watch Cassandra for every move she made when she joined the team, and sure she kind of had for Terra but that was a whole different story that she was sooo not getting into in her mental rant right now. Wait? Now she was actually having a conversation with herself? Yep, insane. It only took three signatures to get her admitted to a mental institution right? Hmm...minors didn't count... not to mention crazy people always stressed out her powers. The empathy and crazy people did not get along. 'Not to self mental institution out of the question.' she thought bringing herself back into reality.

"Erm...Ok Cassandra." She was slightly confused. Sure she had been skeptical of the new girl's intentions but Raven hadn't assumed the girl was going to attack her, and she sure as hell was not going to attack the girl. She was unstable but not a violent raging idiot. Usually. "So...what brings you over here?" She asked, not trying to be rude, but instead trying to start up a less awkward conversations. So far? She was failing.

[Mika Chu Ichimaru]

Mika couldn't hide her surprise as she was offered a seat, she fumbled with her bottle as she tried to pick it up. She keep it from falling and quickly took the seat offered to her. ”Nice to meet you Cassandra, and Rachel,” She said nodding and smiling. 'Rav?' She thought making a quick mental note of it, but really not thinking too much about it. She could feel that there was a good amount of tension at the table, and she let her eyes scan the other students again, and she couldn't understand why they were so shocked, it wasn't like it was the first time she had talked to a new kid, or two before.

She opened her bottle and took a sip before she heard Rachel say something. She looked over at her as she tried to register what she had said. 'Come on stop zoning out,' She thought and waited a few more seconds until she registered what she said. ”Uhm, well I just thought you guys could use a friend that knows how things work around here,” She thought shrugging. She had never really thought about why she spoke to new people, she just did.

She put the lid back on her bottle, and let her eyes do another sweep of the other students in the cafeteria, a few had lost interest and went back to their food, but some were still watching them. She looked back at Cassandra and Rachel, ”So what brings you guys to Jump City High?” She asked brightly, hoping to break the tension and awkwardness that she could feel hanging over this table.

[Batgirl]

Though she wasn't actually looking at Raven, instead eying the way a girl at one table and boy at another had all their attention on each other despite trying to act like they were involved in the dynamics of their respective groups, her eyes narrowed at the near slip-up. These secret identities were just one more layer of frustration here. It wasn't hers that she had to worry about; Cassandra Cain barely existed, given that it wasn't like her father ever got her a birth certificate or anything of the sort.

Batman had only put together actual legal papers for the name in preparation for her attending this school. Even Raven's name, what with being from another dimension, wasn't a major risk in and of itself. But if one of them exposed themselves, it wouldn't be long before the rest were exposed as well. Robin had a real civilian identity and if that secret was unveiled so might Batman's be, and the domino effect continued. It had all been explained to her multiple times prior to starting the school year.

Only halfway-listening to Raven's words after that, the conversation suddenly grabbed Cass's full attention once more at Mika's next question. Why did people feel the need to talk for the sake of talking, for that pretty much seemed to be the case here and often, without a practical reason for the communication? Verbal speech was so much less efficient than the body, than action and reaction. Her gaze slid over to meet Raven's, hoping the other Titan would field this one as Cass couldn't really think of a good response. It wasn't a question she'd expected to encounter; wasn't going to high school supposed to be the normal thing for people their age?

[Raven]

Raven pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to think of the excuse they came up with when they were working out their stories. People never listened when she said to make it simple. The more simple the more believable. She mumbled about a headache to make the motion less strange. She actually did have a headache, but she wasn't one to whine about things like that.

"Our school got shut down, so we needed to be split up into different schools, and considering it's such a big place a lot of us got sent here." She said. She at least figured it was a good excuse in itself. Up until they asked what school they went to. I think their excuse was some charter school that did actually shut down in the area but she would need to check in with one of the others before actually naming it. She usually had a pretty good memory for these things but she was distracted. School was distracting and it made her squirm not to have her hood to hide behind, or a quiet place to meditate for a little while.

She just hoped the girl wasn't too much of the prying type, because quite honestly she would need to harm something i they got into that game of twenty questions. She wasn't really into that. She didn't even answer some of her own friend's questions so why would she answer all of this strangers. She understood it was a way to get to know other people, but she didn't enjoy it. To her it felt like an interrogation and it made her squirm. She sighed, glancing out the window. She wondered idly how angry Robin would be if she ditched for a while. Not for the rest of the day, maybe just through her next class. It was gym, and she was loathing that anyways. Sure, hero meant physically fit, and she could easily do a silly gym course, but she did plenty of obstacle courses with the Titans, and training and fighting bad guys, how much more exercise did she need? None, not really. What she could really use was more time to learn new spells and hone her powers, and MEDITATE, but no. She had gym. Of course.

[Mika Chu Ichimaru]

Mika looked at Rachel as she answered, ”Oh that sucks, sorry about your school,” She said shaking her head. She tried to remember of a school closing recently, but nothing came to mind. She didn't really care, it didn't really matter did it? She didn't think so. She stretched as a sudden feeling of drowsiness came over her. She yawned slightly, covering her mouth with her hand. She smiled again, ”So there are more of you guys, from that other school I mean?” She asked brightly.

She loved when there were new people, more people to meet, but that meant she had new people that she didn't have to get too terribly close to. She glanced at Cassandra, Mika got the feeling that she didn't really want her here. She glanced at Rachel, and she felt the same. She felt neither really wanted her here, but that didn't really matter, they hadn't run her off. Yet. She tapped her toes to a song that she was singing inside her head, as she waited to see what they would say. 'itsudatte kimi no koto wo bokura wa koko de matteru kara
ya na koto ga atta no nara bokura ni hanashi wo kikasete yo ' Song~

[Batgirl]

Grimacing at the ineptitude of it, Cass watched as two boys across the room became angered over some trivial matter she didn't understand and began to engage in what passed for fighting amongst them. It seemed mainly as though they were trying to throw their weight against each other in some show of strength more than any real actual attempt to cause harm. And she actually saw anxiety in some of those around them, excitement in others, as attempts were made to either part the two or egg them on! It was simply stupid to Cass, absently snapping her plastic fork in half as she pondered the ways with which she could use the now two sharp pieces of plastic to incapacitate or maim the both of them without even leaving her seat.

"Yes," Cass supplied confirmation that there were other "transfer students" like them, glad that Raven at least had remembered the cover story which she herself did not even truly understand. She glanced side-long at Mika when the pink-haired girl began to tap her toes to some unheard musical rhythm.

There was in fact one small part of Cass that liked a single aspect of high school. It was things like this. No one, short of the maniacs like the Joker, who knew who she was would ever be so casual and flippant around her. There were always subtle notes of fear, trepidation, challenge, or even pity in their body language when they were in her presence. Here, for the most part, while she knew she hardly fit in; Cass was still treated more normal than she'd ever been before in her twisted life.

For this reason, she decided to give in to Mika despite not understanding her. She could see from her posture that the tapping was meant to elicit a rise, could read the girl's desire for some kind of reaction, and seemingly not a specific one even, clear as day. Despite seeing this and deciding to go ahead and fulfill it, Cass still opened and closed her mouth twice before giving up on figuring out what it was she was supposed to say and instead simply blurting out:

"What?"