Chapter Text
Wally stared wistfully at the most popular kid in school. His eyes showed his longing for the star gymnast. "Maybe he would know who you are if you know, you tried talking to him!" A voice reprimanded Wally. Wally jumped startled by the sudden contact.
"What are you talking about? I'm fine staying here. My heart can't get broken if he doesn't know that I exist." Wally replied, staring at his fingers with a light blush on his face.
"You don't even know if he's going to reject you." Artemis retorted as she ruffled his hair.
"You're not a good best friend." He whined softly as he ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to fix it. "Why am I not a good best friend?" She questioned, laughing softly at Wally's futile attempt to fix his hair.
"You're supposed to help me, not ruin my life." He answered. He groaned, giving up any hope that his hair would go back to normal.
"I'm trying to get you to try new things. That sounds like a good best friend to me." She said before ruffling his hair again to further annoy him. He batted her hands away in a vain attempt to salvage his hair.
"I swear that you're trying to kill me." He sighed, shutting his locker with a slam.
"Grow some balls, Wally. By the way your hair always looks like you just got out bed, so don't bother fixing it." She called out teasingly as she ran down the hall.
Wally sighed, he readjusted his books as he made his way to science. He was an apt student in science. He absolutely adored the subject. Wally could practically hear Artemis say, "Not as much as you adore Dick Grayson."
Wally shook his head, realizing he had zoned out, he rushed to catch up on the notes on the board. His pencil flew across before freezing in shock at his teacher's words.
"I know that most of the time, I force all of you to work by yourselves. However as the holidays are quickly approaching, I have decided to be merciful and allow this to be a group project." Wally sat frozen in his seat knowing what would come next. Immediately, calls of "I call dibs on the nerd" flew across the room.
Wally attempted to sink into the ground. It was not a secret that Wally was the star student in class. He was always scoring perfect marks on his tests. Wally prayed that the earth would take pity on him and swallow him whole. With no such luck his desk was soon bombarded by lazy students, looking for an easy grade by abusing Wally and piling all of the work on him.
He wanted to defend himself, he really did, but he wasn't a target on the jocks list of victims and he rather not join it. Immediately a cheerleader walked towards him as well as a football player. He sighed resigning himself to his fate.
"Hey West! You really want to be partners with me, right?" The jock asks fake sweetness dripping from his voice, with pain promised if Wally were to refuse.
"Don't forget about me!" The cheerleader's voice called.
He nodded without lifting his head. "I knew you were cool, West!" Jake laughed cheerily before hitting his back causing Wally's chest to bang on the desk.
"Now you wouldn't mind doing all the work, would you?" Chelsea's high pitched voice asked. Once again, Wally nodded instead of defending himself. "You are so totally sweet!" Chelsea said, she turned around and giggled to herself. Jake followed her shortly after.
Wally groaned into his hands at the thought of all the work he would have to accomplish over the weekend. Usually the workload was easy to handle due to his prosperity in the subject, however now he would have to do triple the work due to his useless partners.
The bell rang shrilly, relieving Wally from the hell he called a class. He walked to his locker to switch out his textbooks. Suddenly he felt a weight of someone pushing him back. He yelped in surprise. He held out his hands to stop most of the impact of his fall. He groaned, "Artemis, was that really necessary?"
"Of course it was!" She said with a smug smile on her face. "Oh! Look at who has his eyes on us!" Artemis said with exaggerated innocence as she cocked her to the side. Wally looked over, oblivious to what Artemis was insinuating.
He saw Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon looking their way. Immediately, Wally looked down a dust of pink coating his cheeks. "I hate you! That's it, he definitely thinks I am a clumsy weirdo now." He groaned as he pushed Artemis off and stood up.
"Aren't you going to help me up?" Artemis asked with a false pout.
"Go to hell!" Wally retorted before leaning over to pick up his scattered books and began to walk to class.
Wally's blush could still be seen in his next class. He looked down, thinking of how much Dick Grayson would have been laughing at the nerd that tripped.
He sighed, he shook his head and decided to no longer dwell on the past. He looked up, deciding to finally pay attention to his maths teacher.
Wally was also an apt student in math, so he could pay little to no attention and still score high marks on all the tests. Many envied his nearly perfect marks in all classes, but he was afraid that he would slip from his high standards and would disappoint many people. He lived with this fear nearly every day, never stopping to think of his own happiness and instead deeming the expectations and opinions of others higher than his own.
Although Artemis chided him for having this mindset, he had lived with it all his life and he found it difficult to change views that had been ingrained in him since he was a small child.
Wally began doodling on his maths notebook. He was so distracted that he didn't notice, that nearly an hour had passed.
"Remember that you have homework tonight!" The teacher called while the students rushed out the door to get to their next class. Wally sighed as he looked warily around, inspecting the area to see if Artemis would once again decide to surprise him.
Once in class, Wally sat at his seat and gazed at Dick Grayson. This was the only class he had with him and he took advantage of it. He felt like melting into a puddle as he witnessed Dick laughing loudly, a prominent grin on his face. He tucked his blushing face into his hands. He let out a flustered groan.
He peeked at Dick through his fingers, his hands hiding his colored cheeks.
"Still staring are we?" Artemis' teasing voice whispered in his ear.
Wally jumped surprised for the second time in a day. "You really need to stop doing that," he sighed out, annoyance coating his voice.
"No, you need to stop being scared so easily." She laughed softly at Wally's misery.
The teacher clapped his hands and began discussing the new book they would be reading. The scratching of pencils could be heard throughout most of the class time only being interrupted by soft giggle in between.
Wally always finished before the rest of his classmates. He spent his free time staring at Dick with a deep blush on his face. Dick ran his hand through his hair and sighed.
"You're making it really obvious that you like him, Mr. It's better that he doesn't know I exist." Artemis whispered, without taking her eyes off the paper.
He looked down at his paper with a heavy blush on his face. "Shut up." He hissed, a glare aimed her way. He rushed to finish the notes.
Wally set his pencil down and looked up quickly. His eyes met blue ones and a yelp left his lips. His gaze returned to his paper, his cheeks covered by a crimson hue.
He could hear Artemis' laughter. "Do you always have to laugh at my pain?" He hissed quietly, his gaze fixed to his desk.
"I'm sorry. It's just you're so awkward sometimes." She said, attempting to muffle her laughter.
"Yes, make me feel even worse. Why can't I be a normal person?" He questioned, praying that the bell would ring soon.
"You can't be normal because being normal is boring." Artemis responded with a smug smirk on her face.
"I really want to punch that smug look off your face." He groaned in annoyance.
"For you to do that you would have to, one know how to throw a punch and two be able to catch me." She laughed running out the door, once the bell rang.
"Ugh! You're such a bitch, when you want to be!" He yelled aggravated chasing after.
They both didn't notice curious blue eyes watching their interaction. "Hey Barbara, isn't he the cutest thing? He's so pretty when he blushes."Dick said fondly.