Give this one a chance. It's a sort of retelling of the Teen Titans, a suggestion made to me by Howling Behemoth, which I really liked and decided to pursue. This is the Titans pre-powers, which will happen by what I figure will span the first eight chapters, with me releasing two chapters at a time in rapid succession. The story might be a little farfetched and I'd love to give more detail as the story progresses. For the time being you need to know that the Titans are brought together, powerless, by their attendance at a prestigious private school. The characters are as follows, and the following list will also serve as chapter order, as each chapter has a different narrator: Gar Logan (Beast Boy), Kori Starr (Starfire), Victor Stone (Cyborg). Rachel Roth (Raven), and finally Richard Wayne (Robin). Thanks for the read! Enjoy! And expect a nice little Christmas present (12/25/17) in the form of a Teen Titan themed Christmas Special called Gizmo Claus.

Chapter 1- Gar

No need to remind me that I don't belong. It was programmed in my DNA. If I forgot it, I would be dead. Sometimes I tell myself it took a lot of guts to get this far. But really, I'm just lucky. Be it bad luck or good luck. I have friends, too. But that sounds lame. Relying on animals with made up names to get me through another day with the fart brained megalomaniac that is my Uncle. But animals are just less complicated and cruel than real people. At least a cat who plays with his food eventually lets the poor creature's suffering end with a crunch. My Uncle isn't so kind. He only has use of my inheritance while I'm his ward. If it were any other way... Crunch.

I play football, bet you're surprised to hear that. I've earned the nickname among my football brethren, Shrimp Boy. It's apt. I'm tiny. My Uncle slipped a Ulysses S. Grant the coach's way and now I'm Shrimp Boy the benchwarmer. Which is fine by me. Maybe you're wondering why my uncle cares so much? It's 'cause of all the football injuries I've been getting lately. Oh, but I'm only a benchwarmer.

"Hey Shrimp boy."

"Hey robot." Victor Stone is the only tolerable player for the Titans, yeah our team is the Titans, like Remember the but a whole lot less integrated. Vic is the only black player on the team. And he's incredible. Sometimes I hang out at his place, eat pizza (no meat), play video games, and secretly hope his friend Rachel shows up. That girl is fine and I haven't heard any dibs from Robot. That's another thing about Vic, he's part cyborg. A little bit broken, you know? He was in a horrible accident when he was younger that killed his mom, a feeling I know all too well, and left him shattered. His dad stopped at nothing to pick up the pieces, and so now Victor Stone is one mean football machine. People complain that he shouldn't be allowed to play football, but it was just one of those things Vic's dad threw money at, and it went away. Sometimes I wish people would throw money at me when they wanted me to go away...

Speaking of wishing someone would go away...

"Hey, Shrimp boy. Carson told me you don't even practice. You shouldn't be on the football team." Richard Wayne has had it out for me since my Uncle's money cut him from the football team, maybe before. His adopted dad has integrity or something and, despite being super well to do wasn't about to start a bidding war. Told Richard to earn the spot on the team, or whatever. I feel bad for him, honest, but I wish he'd buzz off.

"You and I both know that."

"So quit."

"Not that easy." It was the end of the day, I wasn't going straight home though. Not that stupid.

"Oh, right, I forgot about your valuable role as benchwarmer."

"Mm hm, that's it." I don't even care anymore. I begin pulling things out of my locker, shoving them into my backpack.

"You get hurt an awful lot for someone who doesn't even practice."

"And how do you figure that?" I wish he would leave me alone.

"I figure that you failed."

"Mm hm. At what?" I ask, uninterested.

"At ending it all. What kind of failure can't even kill themselves properly?" That's crossing a line, I almost cross another one, bring his own dead parents into the spotlight. No one knows exactly how they died. I could get his blood boiling if I tell them they didn't fail. But I don't. All I do is say quietly,

"You won't have to worry about my bench warming behind much longer." His eyes grow wide.

"You're not actually going to kill yourself are you?" He snatched my bottle of aspirin suspiciously, which I retrieved and returned to its place, glaring at him.

"Wouldn't really matter to you, but no." Richard looked a little uneasy. Whatever regrets he had he kept to himself, though, and I didn't care. I slammed my locker and walked away, leaving Richard with his bitterness and failure complex to keep him company. I was just fine alone.

But I'm not really alone. My parents were scientists, successful ones. My mother studied animals and my father worked for Richard's adopted dad, Bruce Wayne. So I used to be Richard's friend. Not anymore. When my parents died a couple years back, everything fell apart. Since then I've been on treatment for the mysterious disease that snatched them, my Uncle's been my guardian (which is working out *great*), and the only friends I really have left are animals. Mom taught me how to talk to them, how to treat them and earn their trust. Mom and I would spend hours studying them. If I ever get out of this hell hole, if I ever get the chance to make a life for myself, I'm going to be a zoologist. The animal friends I've acquired are the things I'm going to miss most when I run away. No time for sappy goodbyes to all 99 million of my pets. I need to pack.

I've got the whole plan worked out. Sort of. The only thing that really concerns me, is dying. Since I need my medication to survive and my Uncle monitors my treatment… I know running away puts me at risk of dying the way my parents did. Not running away is an even worse option though. He'll just keep taunting and torturing me. Vic knows nearly the whole situation and has promised to hide me for a few days at his dad's company. When the stir from me disappearing dies down, I should be able to skip town and then… I don't know. I have my dreams, of course, but that's all they are. Maybe Richard was right in the end. Maybe this is just going to kill me.