Chapter 1: The New Girl

Rating: T

Date: Thursday, December 20, 2018

A/N: So, this is just a little experiment. I've been reading countless BBRae stories. And I mean countless... Like, too many. I've stayed up way too many nights for it too. Anyway, I want to see how well I can write one myself. Firstly, for those of you who are here because you opened a notification about me uploading a new story and were curious because this isn't a PJO fanfiction, you should check it out. Like most of my other stories, it's an alternate universe and it's going to have the usual drama I like in my stories (because my mother showed me way too many novelas as a little girl). To those of you who don't know me at all, I'm Melissa. That's all you have to know, really. If you keep reading, you'll learn what my writing style looks like. I've improved so much since my first few fanfictions, and I'm so glad. So, please, if you read this chapter, I don't recommend you checking my other fanfictions because they're pretty old and pretty bad. Like really bad.

So like I said, this is an experiment. I've read many High School AU stories where Beast Boy is the new guy, but I've never seen one (completed) where Raven is the new girl. So I want to try it! I love AUs, and I believe there isn't enough of them in this world. Please, feel free to give me feedback. I will try to answer all my reviews since I don't think this will get too many. Criticism is welcome, just please try to give suggestions and not just hateful comments. A good critique provides the bad stuff and a suggestion on how to fix it.

[Important Stuff]

This is an alternate universe where the Titans have no powers. I'm trying to keep the characters as true to their personalities as I can. The cartoon isn't my only source of knowledge for the Titans. I've read many of their comics. I especially love Pérez and Woolfman's run of The New Teen Titans (though I haven't read it fully) as well as Geoff John's Teen Titans (I've read most of it, plus it's where my love for BBRae comes from). As such, the details are kind of split between the cartoon and the comics. So I'll be featuring the names of the characters and their respective persona in the introduction in case you guys don't know. This chapter includes

Garfield Logan - Beast Boy/Changeling

Victor Stone - Cyborg

Raven Roth - Raven (I simply don't like Rachel as her alias. As opposed to other heroes, Raven was her birth name, and Rachel was her chosen alias when she moved to Earth, so I like to use Raven. Roth is simply for her last name. I'm not very fond of it either.)

Kory Anders - Starfire/Koriand'r (Kory ((not Kori)) because I'm staying true to her name in the New Teen Titans)

Pamela Isley - Poison Ivy

Dick Grayson - Robin/Nightwing

Wally West - Kid Flash/Flash

Roy Harper - Speedy/Arsenal

Disclaimer: This is the first and only disclaimer in the story. I don't own the cover art for this story. It was made by Gabriel Picolo who will be illustrating an upcoming 2019 book about Raven by Kami Garcia. I'm definitely going to check it out, and you should too!

The New Girl

"Garfield Logan!"

"Uh… Yes, Ms. Evans?"

"You're late. For the third time this week…"

Garfield sheepishly scratched the back of his neck as he stood at the classroom entrance. He heard a few giggles from some of the girls and hushed whispers no doubt spreading false rumors about his excuse. Then again, he didn't have an excuse.

"I, uh…" he stuttered, trying to devise a believable lie for his tardiness. Though, he had never been any good at devising anything that wasn't a clever prank or an amusing joke.

"Well, Mr. Logan? I'm waiting…" Ms. Evans crossed her arms and observed him attentively.

"I…" his eyes glanced around the room in a desperate measure to find something, anything, that could give him a valid excuse. From the window, he saw an elderly lady waiting on the sidewalk to cross the street. A light bulb switched on inside his head. "Would you believe me if I told you that I was helping an old lady cross the street?"

There were a few snickers from some of his peers who quickly quieted down when his strict English teacher glared at them. Ms. Evans turned to eye Garfield down. He swore that she was envisioning lasers shooting out of her eyes hoping to terminate him on the spot. Good thing that didn't happen. Garfield was young, and he didn't want his life to end by a dumb tardy excuse. He could already see the words carved into his gravestone: 'Garfield Mark Logan, brutally murdered by his English teacher on his second week of Junior year.'

"Detention after school. Make sure to bring your reading assignment cause you'll be finishing that during your extra hour stay. Now go sit down," Ms. Evans muttered. Then, she turned back to the board to write their assignment for the day.

Garfield exhaled the long breath he'd been holding in. Thankfully, his life wouldn't end today, hopefully anyway. He walked to his seat in the back and high-fived a few guys on the way there. He didn't mean to brag, but he was a tad bit popular in his grade. A few girls giggled as he sent them his signature, mischievous grin. Alright, so he was a jock, but there wasn't anything wrong with that. He wasn't like those stereotypical jocks in the movies who made a competition of dating girls and sleeping with them. In fact, he'd only ever had one serious relationship in the past with a girl he was convinced he was in love with. Garfield was proud to say that they'd only started sleeping together a year into their relationship and that wasn't even his primary motive. Unfortunately for him, she didn't reciprocate his strong feelings. Instead, she dumped him a year and a half into their relationship for some college douchebag. He hated remembering his old girlfriend, but he couldn't deny Tara had stolen his heart and crushed it in the course of two years. Regardless, Garfield had gotten over her (at least he tried to convince himself), and admittedly, he was a flirty guy. He was extremely popular with the ladies as his dashing good looks and incredible sense of humor never failed to lure them in (he liked to think so).

Garfield plopped down on his chair next to his best friend, Victor, who had been eying him the moment he had walked into the classroom.

"So, green bean, why so late, huh?" Victor leaned in to whisper.

"Dude, how many times have I told you to stop calling me that? It happened years ago," Garfield grumbled remembering the origin of his stupid nickname. During his third year of elementary school, Garfield had been so obsessed with the Incredible Hulk that he had decided it was a good idea to paint himself green during his art class while his teacher was outside the room. Needless to say, Rita and his art teacher had been infuriated, both for different reasons: one for simply being an embarrassment of a child and one for using up nearly all of the green paint in the studio. Of course, Victor hadn't forgotten about the incident, and it didn't help that he had remained a good half-foot shorter than the bulky, six foot five guy. Good thing he had gotten over his obsession (mostly anyway). Instead of being fully green, he had only dyed the tips of his hair green. It was the obvious answer.

"Not enough. Now answer the question," Victor grinned.

Garfield rolled his eyes, "Alright, so my alarm didn't wake me up again, and my car was out of gas this morning so I had to stop at the gas station."

"That it? What got you so tired you couldn't get up this morning?" Victor arched a suggestive eyebrow.

Garfield sighed, "I was at the hospital again. Doctor was talking to me about the usual. Yada, yadda, don't overwork yourself or your condition will get worse, blah. You know the drill."

"Gar, you really have to listen to your doctor. You know how serious your illness is, and yesterday, you really did overwork yourself during gym class," Victor's voice lost its humorous tone.

"Dude, I know that. I just wanted to be a normal guy for once. Geez, I know my disease is incurable and all but if I could technically drop dead at any moment, I might as well live in the moment, you know?" Garfield muttered as he crossed his arms.

Victor frowned, "Don't say that. You're not going to drop dead as long as you take care of yourself."

"Yeah, whatever, can we stop talking about it? Like I said, live in the moment," Garfield placed his arms behind his head and leaned back on his chair. "Plus, detention ain't that bad. At least it'll keep me from procrastinating on the assignment or not turning it in at all…"

"You right about that green bean. I'm glad you always see the silver lining in everything," Victor smiled and patted his head.

"Stop calling me that!" Garfield exclaimed.

"Victor, Garfield, anything interesting you have to share?" Ms. Evans glared from the front of the classroom.

"Erm… No, Ms. Evans…" both Garfield and Victor murmured.

"Raven, is it? Hold on, I can't find your name in the system," the receptionist stood up and disappeared inside the room behind her desk.

Raven grimaced and plopped down on one of the waiting chairs. She glanced at the clock, and her mood only worsened. Forty-five minutes. She had been waiting for a total of forty-five minutes and the receptionist still hadn't found her enrollment documents. Perfect. Everything was just perfect.

"Hello, are you new here too?" a girl questioned from a few chairs away. The girl, like Raven, had also been waiting there for a long time. Unlike her, however, her expression remained radiant and optimistic. The girl was extremely tall, standing probably a foot taller than Raven who was only five feet two herself. She had extremely long and luscious red hair that essentially reached her waist. Her visage was what Raven would consider near-perfect as well as her extreme hourglass shape. Her eyes were a bright emerald green and almost looked like they glowed despite the dim lighting of the room. She essentially looked like a model.

Raven simply nodded and opened her book to read. Hopefully, it would deter the bright girl from continuing the conversation.

"My name is Kory Anders! May I learn your name, friend?" the girl exclaimed blissfully.

Raven sighed and closed her book shut. She didn't want to be rude, but she didn't want to continue talking to her in fear that she would consider her a new friend. Hell, she had already called her one.

"Raven."

"Raven? That is a very pretty name. It is a type of bird, is it not? Did your mother perhaps like ravens?" she questioned curiously.

Raven tensed at the mention of her birth mother. Arella. Despite giving birth to her, the woman had basically left her to rot at the hands of her father. That woman could care less about her own daughter, so Raven didn't bother caring about her.

She shrugged at the question and opened her book again. Kory was about to speak when the receptionist, Pamela, reentered the room. Raven instantly jumped up, hoping to get out of the room as soon as possible.

"Good news, ladies, the principal has confirmed your enrollment papers to Jump City Highschool. You two are good to go. I got your schedules right here," Pamela grinned and placed two papers on the desk.

Raven practically raced towards the sheet. "It was nice to meet you, friend Raven. I hope to see you-" but Raven had already dashed out of the room without another word. She felt like a bitch, and with good reason. Kory seemed like an innocent, nice girl who didn't deserve Raven's treatment. However, Raven knew she was a bitch, and she actively acted for the role, mostly to keep people at arms distance. She didn't like people. She didn't like talking to people. Most definitely, she didn't like making friends. Friends were complicated. Friends were hard to keep. Friends were a liability. Raven didn't like liabilities.

She was glad she could start fresh in this new environment, and with only two years to go, cliques and friend groups were already established, so it'd be easy to avoid making friends. Most of all, she looked forward to a peaceful and quiet environment-

"Oof!" a male voice uttered as they both crashed onto each other and promptly fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Raven groaned, momentarily stunned by the fall. She opened her eyes and found herself peering into the greenest eyes she'd ever seen, brighter than even Kory's. She wasn't sure how much time passed as he didn't stop staring into her own eyes either. She was only awoken from her hypnotic state when his eyes sneakily trailed down to her chest which was essentially showing a bit too much cleavage in their current position.

Raven scowled and stood up, grabbing her book as she did to avoid any of those cliché 'let me grab your stuff and woo you' scenarios he was undoubtedly conjuring inside his head. She zipped up her jacket when she did, suddenly uncomfortable with her black v-neck shirt.

"Heh… Sorry, that was my bad," he stood up sheepishly and chuckled. He grinned at her with what she supposed was his best 'charming prince' smile. She was good at reading people, however, and she knew where his intentions stood. He was the typical California sun-kissed guy with messy blonde hair and most likely a jock reputation judging by his attractive physique, neither scrawny nor buff. Raven wasn't going to deny it. After all, she had eyes, and he was really attractive. However, she most certainly wasn't going to act on that attraction like he seemingly expected her to. Her glare only intensified, and she felt a hint of pride at the bit of fear she detected in his expression.

When she didn't say anything, he hurriedly spoke in an attempt to keep her from walking away like she intended to, "I'm Gar, uh… Are you new? I haven't seen you around and you… uh… don't look like a freshman…" his eyes traveled down her silhouette again, and Raven felt her face grow hot (she wasn't sure if it was from anger or embarrassment, probably a bit of both).

"Excuse me," she muttered before shoving him to the side and walking past him.

"Hold up!" he took her wrist and pulled her back.

Raven quickly turned and snatched her hand back. "What?" she spat out with a venomous tone. Gar was clearly taken aback as he stepped away from her.

"I didn't catch your name…" Gar muttered like a hurt puppy.

Raven clutched her book tightly against her chest. She frowned, "What's it to you?"

Gar laughed for a moment and then smiled at her, "I just want to know your name."

"Raven. Now, if you excuse me, I'm late to class," she murmured before turning around and rushing away before he could catch up with her again. Thankfully, he didn't follow, and she was able to let out an unintentional breath she had been holding. Why was she holding her breath? Whatever, she had to get to class before the bell or else she would be late. On her first day.

"And then she turned around and basically ran away like I would chase after her or something."

"I mean, knowing you, you probably would," Dick pointed out as he took a bite of his hamburger.

"Dude, I'm not that desperate. I'm just a nice guy," Garfield muttered as he poked his potato salad with his fork.

"So she's new here? Two weeks into Junior year? Huh, I wonder where she transferred from," Victor replied curiously.

"Well, I want to meet this mysterious chick you mentioned judging by your description," Wally added with a suggestive eyebrow.

Garfield rolled his eyes, "Is that all you heard me say? Gee, Wally, get your head out of the gutter. She doesn't seem like that type of girl."

"Well, by the way she totally blew you off, it seems like it," Roy snickered.

"Yeah, harsh dude. Must have hurt your ego," Wally commented with a laugh.

"Whatever…" Garfield muttered as the guys switched their conversation topic to the other new girl in the school. He couldn't stop thinking about Raven though. Truthfully, he was a bit disappointed that she didn't seem to take his advances like other girls usually did. She seemed so… different. It wasn't just her pale complexion or her intense indigo eyes. She had some sort of odd aura that set the gears turning inside his head.

Garfield was curious, really curious. He wanted to learn more about her. He wanted to know her story. He wanted to know why she appeared so closed off. He wanted to know how she'd look when she smiled. He wanted to hear the undoubtedly heavenly sound of her laughter. Did she even laugh? Maybe she'd laugh at one of his jokes? That seemed too optimistic. Regardless, Garfield wanted to know more about her.

And when Garfield wanted something, he did everything in his power to acquire it.

A/N: That's it for the first chapter. Please, review if you have any suggestions or comments. It's very helpful and encouraging. It motivates me to write. Like I mentioned before, this is an experiment. If even a few people like it, I'll continue it. Thank you for reading!