Standing now was a red-headed ghost, with blue eyes and freckles that danced with glee as his arms stretched towards the poor twerp who’d been tapped to play Macbeth. Friendly though it may have been, she doubted Vic Stone of the football team was approaching the role with as much relish. Stone had tried to continue his reading, clutching his textbook in hand, but every few moments the redhead would pull a new face, waggle his fingers in Stone’s face, or even notably throw a pencil case at the student.
“That’s quite enough, West.” a voice from the front of the room snapped. Out of instinct alone, Raven ceased tapping her desk and shrank into a more engaged posture, narrowing her eyes as she pulled her sleeves over her hands. Their English teacher had a temper, for sure, and the pinched features to match the severe haircut she allowed to hang around her neck.
Raven couldn’t think of why Wally West thought it would be a good idea to mess around in her class, but that was West for you - he never thought about getting in trouble, and by some miracle, he never did, either.
“I was just haunting him! I’m sure Willy would’ve-”
“William Shakespeare would have been horrified to see the butchering of his characters I am permitting in this class. Banquo is not your role to play - sit down.” she snapped, and as if deflated, West sank into his desk chair once more. Stone was easily one of the tallest, most well-built young men in their class, but Raven couldn’t fault him for swallowing heavily as their teacher turned to him.
“SIt, Stone, we are done for the day.” The football star nearly collapsed at his desk in relief, but Raven turned a skeptical eye to their teacher, who rose to her feet.
“I have an announcement to make. In two days we will have completed this act. Thus, on the Friday of next week, you are to hand in a three-page written assignment on this act.” Their teacher paused, casting a glance around the room as she waited for students to gather their pencils and paper. Those who’d been slow to the draw were left to scramble for their supplies, and Raven could see a knobby-kneed blonde girl rummaging frantically through her backpack in the third row.
“You are to reflect on how your role - or roles, as it may be - have developed over the last two acts. Draw comparisons to how they were first introduced and how others see them now.”
Raven had to work to contain the eyeroll she wanted to gift this assignment. It was only partly exasperation as well - there was only so much you could do with ‘Witch 3′.
“To make this assignment easier, I will be dividing the class into groups -” By now, the teacher knew when to expect the students’ voices to swell - some in protest, some immediately claiming their partner for the assignment, and rapped a hand on her desk in protest.
“That I will be assigning.” Raven fought the urge to bury her head in her hands. At least in chosen groups Raven could get away with not having a partner, but if it were assigned, that hope was shattered.
The class was in chaos as their teacher drew out their attendance sheet, and they did not settle down as she read the names. As many of their classes did, the room exploded with noise, and Raven could feel a vein popping above her right eyebrow.
“Logan and Markov, Stone and West, Anders and Beecher, Roth and Grays-”
Noise was pressing in from every angle, and Raven’s annoyance was only growing. And now it had a tangible consequence - had she heard Grace?
Across the room, Raven watched the girl with blonde hair smack Logan’s hand hard in a high-five, so much so that he tried not to wince as he flipped his streak of green hair out of his eyes. Scowling at the antics of her classmates, Raven pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head and shut her eyes, hoping against science that the class would just be over already...
“Umm...” someone was speaking beside her, close enough for Raven to notice, and she opened a narrowed eye to seek out the source of the sound. One of her classmates with jet-black hair was staring down at her, and Raven met his expression with a steady glare.
“I think you’re my partner... Roth, right?” he asked, and Raven arched an eyebrow in response.
Of course it had been Grayson.
“I’m Dick Gr-”
“I know who you are.” The whole school did, to put it mildly. Grayson was at the top of everyone’s list in PE class, and the resident heartthrob among the female demographic. She’d heard enough rumours around the school to be aware - but it wasn’t hard to hear Kitten’s aired laundry around the halls.
Usually Raven’s stand-offish nature was enough to get her partner to request a change, but in this case, Dick just smiled, sitting on the desk next to Raven’s.
“I don’t think I know yours?”
She let out a sigh, finally cracking open the other eye that she’d been keeping closed. It was going to be harder than she anticipated to shake him, but it didn’t mean Raven wasn’t going to try.
“Raven.” she said cooly, keeping her arms folded even as he extended his hand to shake. Who even did that anymore? She wondered, but he was not scared off so easily.
“When are you free to meet? I-”
“Yo, Dick!” West shouted from across the room, and both of their heads turned to the source of the commotion. And they soon saw why - by their count, it was less than a minute until the bell. The redhead knew it too, and had picked up his books in one fell swoop before cramming them into his backpack on the way over.
“Come on! I wanna be early to Chem today, make sure that little pipsqueak and his dumb friends don’t take our back bench again.” His words tumbled over each other like acrobats, and clutched in one fist, Raven saw a half-eaten chocolate bar. West was one of those kids who seemed like he was riding a constant sugar high - he exhausted Raven even by standing next to her.
“I’ll catch you later, okay?” He asked, trying to resist being pulled bodily out the door among the commotion, but Raven didn’t mind, breathing a sigh of relief as he was tugged into the hallway.
True to Dick’s word, he did indeed ‘catch her later’, on her way out at the end of the day, in fact. He’d caught up with her across the parking lot and agreed to meet after school on Monday to start the assignment. Raven was starting to learn that he was nothing if not insistent, and he had a very annoying way of actually seeming like he enjoyed her presence.
~
“So, do you have any idea how Banquo and the third Witch developed in this act?” Grayson had flipped open his copy of the play seemingly at random, but it only took Raven a moment to notice that he was exacting - he’d memorized the pages where Banquo spoke.
Despite herself, Raven was impressed.
“I... actually looked ahead, and the witch isn’t in many scenes in the third act.” Raven raised an eyebrow at her classmate, hiding her surprise.
“Maybe we can look at the witches as a whole?”
“They’re not too distinct, and you never see one without the others. But I was thinking...” For the first time in a while, Dick looked up at Raven, bright eyes inquisitive as he collected his thoughts.
“What if we did the witches’ influence over the story?”
It caught Raven off guard, but the idea was a good one, and she fought her lips as they almost began to crease into a grin.
“Let’s ask her in tomorrow’s class, but... that’s a good idea, actually.”
Dick looked pleased with himself for a moment, and leaned back in his chair, until his brow furrowed after a moment.
“Why’d you sound surprised?” He asked her out of the blue, and Raven had to take a moment to swallow, unease clear.
“I...”
“I just didn’t expect you to be smart, too.”
To her surprise, Dick let out a laugh at her response, and folded his arms over his chest as he rose to his feet.
“Didn’t expect that from the kid who does it all?” He asked her, but where Raven had expected cockiness, it took her only a moment to notice a trace of disappointment.
The heat rose to Raven’s cheeks, and she busied herself with looking in her copy of Macbeth for textual evidence. After a moment, Dick joined her, and after a few minutes, the conversation slowly began to creep back toward them.
~
They’d submitted the essay, and that had been the end of that, for a week or so at least. Their well-earned A scored, Dick and Raven resumed their positions in the normal hierarchy of high school - to be precise, that was the end of their conversation. She still saw him from time to time, especially between classes as the bustle of other students took everyone up and down the hallway like a fish among the current, but they didn’t speak again until a week later, and even then, by pure accident.
He’d been returning a book to the library, Raven could see from where she peered over her open novel. She couldn’t tell the title from where she sat, but her peering had caught his attention, and after the moment it took for recognition to light up Dick’s expression, he made his way over to her.
“Hey, how’re you?” He asked, offering a gentle smile.
“I was just dropping off a book before I ran to lunch, what’re you doing here?”
The girl could feel her heart in her throat, casting a baleful glance to her own packaged lunch. If she’d only had the sense to hide it, she wouldn’t have felt the heat creeping up her temples now, doubly so when she saw Dick follow her gaze.
For a moment, the boy stood, pensive, a slight frown on his face as the final pieces clicked together.
“I like the quiet.” Raven added, wishing she didn’t sound quiet so defensive as Dick turned his gaze to her.
In the next moment, he jerked his head to the side, and his smile returned.
“Y’know, why don’t you come with me?” Raven’s surprise and trepidation must have been evident, as he backed up a step in an attempt to entice her along.
“There are some people I’d like you to meet.”
“I’m fine just here, thanks.” Raven was a lot of things, but pitied was not going to be one of them as long as she could help it.
“Come on, I know my friends are going to like you.” His insistence wasn’t pressuring, but still Raven made no move to stand up.
“How can you be sure?” Raven’s doubt spilled out faster than she could clamp it down, and for a split second, she could see Dick’s reaction as the slightest of tightening around his eyes.
But even that he seemed to have an easy answer to.
“Because I do.”
