Barry was nervous. It was his first day of 5th grade, his last year in elementary school. He didn't know why he was so nervous, he's gone to this school his whole life.

Oh wait, he did know why he was nervous. After three months free, he was about to get back into his daily routine of getting his ass kicked. He was about to deal with Tony Woodward and his gang of bullies beating him up between each class.

Barry tried to get his parents to consider homeschool, but both of them were too busy. His dad had a night job as a doctor, and his mom worked as a nurse at the local hospital. They've told Barry so many times during the summer that homeschool just wasn't an option.

One thing that did change over the summer was the fact that he could walk to school now. It took some convincing, but Barry's parents decided he was old enough to start walking to school. After all, it was only five minutes. It wasn't that bad.

Of course, on the first day, Nora made sure she had enough time to drive her only son to school. Barry was terrified; she had to reassure him that he would be okay.

It took awhile, but soon enough Nora decided to leave. Barry felt like a kid going into his first day of kindergarten when she left; bullies would do that to you. With his mom, no one would dare go near Barry, but without her…

" Hey, Allen! " a voice shouted from behind him. Barry turned around, only to get shoved to the ground with a way-to-familiar force.

"Who's gonna protect you, huh? Your mommy? " Tony Woodward snarled, as he kicked Barry's side. Barry curled up into a ball as he listened to the group of people laughing in the background.

"Hey, leave him alone!" a voice shouted from down the hall. Barry opened his eyes, and looked up to notice a girl he'd never seen before storming over to the scene. He wanted to get up and scream, "Run away, get out of here before he hurts you!" but he was too scared to even move.

Tony chuckled, and sauntered over to the girl. "What's your name, princess?" he snarled, and the girl punched him. Barry's heart skipped a beat. This girl was in some real trouble.

"Leave that boy alone," she shouted at Tony, who rubbed the area of his face she punched.

"You must be new here," he chuckled, before cracking his knuckles.

"So what? You're going to hit a girl now? Let alone the new girl?" the girl snarked back. Barry took this chance to get up and sneak over to his bully. He jumped onto Tony's back, and the girl punched him again, knocking him off balance. Barry jumped off his back, and grabbed the new girl's hand.

"Come on, we have to go," he said to her, before dragging her off to a different section of the school.

Once Barry decided they were safe, he stopped running. The new girl was laughing, Barry wasn't sure why though. He just saved her from getting her ass kicked by the school bully!

"You didn't have to save me, you know," the new girl said, smirking. "I can take care of myself."

"He was... going… to hurt… you," Barry said, still out of breath from the running.

The girl laughed, and shook her head. "My dad's a cop, he had me take a ton of self defense classes," she said, before sticking her hand out. "I'm Iris, what's your name?"

Barry grabbed her hand, and shook it. "Barry Allen," he said, before letting out a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Iris asked, letting his hand go and putting hers on her hips.

"Nothing," Barry said. "You're just the coolest girl I've ever met. Does your dad stop bad guys or something?" he asked.

Iris nodded proudly. "Yeah, he does. He's like a superhero!" she said happily.

Barry laughed again. "I love superheros, especially superman! I want to be just like him when I grow up," he said, grinning widely.

Iris smiled, and said happily, "I want to be like my daddy when I grow up!"

Barry laughed yet again, and nodded. "You can be a superhero, just like him!" he said cheerfully.

In the moment, Barry felt something he never felt before. He felt… happy, but a different kind of happy. He felt like he wanted to be around Iris for the rest of his life, and he never wanted to be anywhere without her.

"You and me, we're going to be best friends," Barry exclaimed, and Iris smiled.

"Okay!" She said, and they started walking back to their first class.

From that day forward, the duo was inseparable. From that day of school, to the day they got married.