Pen Pals

Summary: Artemis Crock doesn't want to talk about her past to anybody. So when her school, along with another anonymous school, decides to start a penpal assignment, Artemis never knew how much it could change her life forever. Spitfire (Perhaps, other couples too).

Author's Notes/Warning: This is "somewhat AU," and some characters will be (or most likely be… or even could be) OOC.

I do not own Young Justice—if I did, episodes would have been out much quicker. Much, much quicker.

Prologue

Robin had his arms crossed, leaning against a few crates as he watched his best friend, Wally West, go at it again. They were bantering again, like a married couple. Normally, on regular basics, he would enjoy watching the two squabble on and on as if there was no tomorrow, but right then… he wasn't in the mood.

"Those two really need to get along," a deep voice behind him stated, causing him to whirl around. Batman emerged from the darkness of the cave, masked and hidden under his costume. "A team can't cooperate functionally unless everyone's willing to put aside their differences and work together in harmony."

Robin, along with Zatanna, M'gann, and Conner, immediately looked at Kaldur'ahm, who had a wearied, tired look on his face. "I have tried everything to get these two to get along," Kaldur'ahm admitted. "But no matter what I've done or said, these two will not listen to me."

"Well," Batman said, looking at the rest of the team. "Surely, you haven't tried hard enough as those two are still going at it."

Robin looked at Conner, who had his arms crossed, folded against his chest. "Maybe it's a sign from the universe to tell us to stop trying," Conner finally said, looking at Wally and Artemis, who were still throwing words back and forth at each other.

"Well," Batman replied, looking at the Kryptonian. "It has to stop. And soon."

-x-

Artemis Crock hated skirts. If anything, she'd much rather exchange the uniform she was sporting and trade it in for her favorite brown jacket and jeans, clothes that she's familiar with. Clothes that make her feel safe. Wearing a skirt made her feel… somewhat revealing. And she wasn't the type of person who would like to reveal anything.

Bette Kane, the blond next to her, was her student liaison and one of her few new friends she has made since she had began attending this school. The two of them, just like the rest of their English class, were seated in the school's one-of-many expensive computer labs. "I wonder why we're here," Bette finally said, running her hand nervously through her long locks. "Normally, Ms. Rosette would actually give us a heads-up on what is to come for our class."

Before Artemis could reply, their English teacher walked into the computer lab. A young woman, with her caramel locks up in a messy bun, walked to the front of the class.

"Sorry I'm late, class," Ms. Rosette spoke, a sweet smile appearing on her face as she added, "I was going over a few last-minute details with the other professors to why we're in here today." She handed the stack of papers to one of the kids who were seated near her. "Pass them out, will you, James?" She turned her attention back to the rest of the class. "A few days ago, our school, along with another anonymous school in another state has agreed to do a program that's sponsored by an anonymous donor."

"That sure is a lot of anonymous," Artemis muttered softly as she cocked her head; her hands were on her skirt, trying to pull them down over her knees. Bette turned to her and shushed her. She gave her friend a meek smile and returned her attention to her English teacher.

"As I was saying," her English teacher continued, ignoring Artemis's comment, "since our school has agreed to do this program, it'll give our students a better chance to develop relations with those 'outside our walls,' if you will."

"So this is a pen pal experiment?" Garrett O'Callaghan, the boy seated across from Artemis, asked.

"No, Garrett," Ms. Rosette replied, shaking her hands. "This is a program that our school has agreed to do to help our students develop better relationships with students outside of their school, and learn about how similar and different our lives vary from theirs."

"So this is a pen pal program?" Garrett asked again, causing a few students around him to snicker.

"No Garrett, it isn't," Ms. Rosette hissed, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. Looking at the rest of the class, she let out a sigh before she continued. "As I was saying," Ms. Rosette said once again, crossing her arms, "this will affect your grades in this class, as everybody your year is required to do this. It'll be a major factor to as whether or not you'll pass or fail this class."

Bette immediately turned to Artemis. "I can't believe this," Bette hissed, her arms folded against her chest. "Ms. R never gives us anything this extreme."

"It must be funded by some very important anonymous person, then," Artemis commented, crossing her arms. "I mean, why else would our school even agreed to this? It seems like a very dumb idea."

"What if you don't want to do this assignment?" another student, a boy whose name Artemis couldn't remember, asked. "Because this 'program'"—he made air quote motions with his fingers—"sounds boring." She guessed that the boy had another word he had wanted to associate with the program was something a bit more vulgar than the word, "boring."

But she couldn't care less, because she wasn't going to take the program seriously. It was just a silly new program that was being tested out, that's all.

"Yes, you do. In fact, thank you Danny, for reminding me," Ms. Rosette said, causing half of the class to groan in silence. "It's mandatory for all of you to participate in this assignment."

Artemis couldn't help but shoot him a dirty look as she was handed a bunch of papers from James, who then went on to hand out papers to Bette.

"Isn't this exciting?" Bette asked, glancing at the papers in front of her.

"Yes, exciting," Artemis replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Looking at her paper, her eyes widen in alarm as she saw her name printed on the paper. "Wait, our names are our usernames? Wouldn't this—erm—cause some troubles for those who want to keep their identity a… secret?"

Ms. Rosette looked at her, acknowledging her question. "Why, yes, Artemis. Thank you for pointing that out. The second you log in onto the server, you all are required to change your username to your liking. Keep in mind, I—along with a few others—will be monitoring and going over what is going back and forth for the next few weeks… so no usernames that expresses profanity or anything offensive that you wouldn't want your mother to find out about."

Artemis couldn't help but stared at her computer screen in disbelief. Oh, I am so going to BS this.

-x-

Wally West had his legs strategically propped against the desk he was at so that he wouldn't accidentally kick the computer that was in front of him. He was drowning his English teacher out; a drum solo was repeatedly going over and over in his head. It wasn't until the girl next to him elbowed him in the gut did he pay any attention to his teacher.

"—however, our school is being funded to even participate in this program," Mr. Harley said, tugging at his loose tie. He licked his lips nervously before adding, "And that's why our class—along with every other sophomore English class in Keystone High School is participating in this program."

Wally immediately looked at the girl next to him, a skeptical look on his face. "Did you really have to jab me?" he asked, pulling his feet off the desk.

"Coming from the guy who's barely passing every class, yes," she replied.

"Hey, a C-plus is 'average,'" Wally replied, crossing his arms. He leaned further back in his chair, and went back to listening to his teacher go on and on about how it was such an honor for their school to be chosen, from out of a hundred other schools in the country that had been eligible.

"This is a required assignment," Mr. Harley said, emphasizing on the word, "required." For a second, Wally thought that his English teacher was glaring at him. "And for those of you who are barely passing… this will either bring your grade up or… down, depending on how serious you are when it comes to this assignment."

He walked over to the whiteboard besides the screen for the projector, and immediately scribbled down the website's name in long, wiry letters. "This is the website that you all are must log on to. Your username is your last name, underscore, first name. The second that you've logged on, you're required to come up with your own username. Do not use any dirty words in your new username, as it will require you to come up with a new one. We'll be going here twice every week for the next few weeks."

Wally looked at the screen in front of him. It He could tell it was an old computer, as it was running on Window XP. If Robin was here, he would have complained about a lack of upgrade. Quickly logging onto the computer, he quickly clicked onto the internet browser. After typing away at a swiftly speed; he quickly logged into his account and changed his username.

To his surprise, he had already had a random person picked and assigned to him. I need to pass this class, he thought to himself. Or mom will have a cow.

Dear whoever that will receive this,

I'm going to be honest here. I don't know you, you don't know me. But seeing as how this assignment will determine whether or not I'll pass or fail this class ( and since I'm on the brink of either passing or failing) I'm going to need you to cooperate with me.

I'm pretty sure this assignment is important in your class as well, which is why I'm going to reason with you. We can talk about anything, really. Just as long as I'm passing this assignment, I'm pretty chill with everything else.

Reply, post haste.

SpeedsterX.

-x-

Artemis stared at her screen in a mix of shock, anger, and confusion. How do I reply to this? Do I help the poor guy out or do I screw him over for sounding like a complete jerk?

She quickly glanced over to the left of the screen, where her pen pal's name was still bolded, letting her know that her pen pal was still online. Moving the arrow over to the username, she quickly debated whether or not she should contact the person, right then and there, and tell the person off. Instead, she decided to reply to his email instead.

Dear speedsterx,

Give me a few reasons why I should help you. Maybe then, just maybe, I'll help you.

A.

She barely even had a few minutes to herself, when she received a reply.

Because I'm awesome.

No, seriously. I am.

For some odd reason, she couldn't help but smirk at his odd, yet funny reply. She started to wonder whether or not it would be a good idea to finally have somebody to talk to without having to freak out over the fact that they would judge her. It would be nice to finally find somebody to open up to. Maybe, she could finally get all of the words off of her chest of everything that she had to keep silent over.

A/N: And so, the trouble begins. Wally and Artemis don't know that they're penpals, and they're not going to find out (until much, much later).

As much as I was giggling over the fact that I had to type Robin and Batman, instead of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, I have to remember that no one on the team (besides Wally, I think… I'm not sure… but I think Wally knows about Robin and Batman's identity) knows who the heck Robin and Batman really are.

Anyways, comment/review? It'll be very much appreciated.