And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now
~Iris ~ Goo Goo Dolls~

...School: September 28, 2010...

All day Richy has been in a bad mood and nobody knows why. At lunch I confront him about it.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Obviously not, the scale goes great, good, okay, not okay, I hate you, and then I'm fine," I say. "What's eating you up?"

He sighs. "There's this girl..."

"Ooh! Richy has a crush!" I squeal. "Who is it?"

"Y-you don't know her... S-she goes to a different school."

"Oh, so why are you so upset?" I ask. "Did she reject you?"

"No, nothing like that..." He sighs. "She's shown a lot of interest in me by teasing and flirting with me. But... my best friend asked her out and she accepted."

"Sounds complicated," I admit. "Why don't you just tell her you like her?"

"That's the problem, I don't know if I do," he says.

"Have you ever liked a girl before?" I ask.

"No."

"That makes more sense. Well, you obviously like her if your jealous of your best friend," I admit. "Wait, isn't Barbara your best friend? She's lesbian?"

He begins to laugh. "No! No! She's not! My best friend is male. He doesn't go here either."

"Oh," I say. "You have a lot of friends from somewhere else."

"Well, when your dad is Bruce Wayne, you meet a lot of people."

I laugh. "I guess so." I give him a stern look. "If you like this girl then you should tell her."

"If you only knew the situation," Richy sighs, going silent. He changes the conversation. "So, do you live with your aunt?"

"Well since I got a scholarship to Gotham Academy, I have been," I say. "I like my aunt, she's really cool. Aunty Selina teaches me gymnastics sometimes when we're bored. She has money, so we go to lots of cool places too."

"Yeah, same," he says. "The cool places part, not the gymnastics!"

I laugh. "I kinda figured. I can't see Brucie doing any kind of gymnastics."

"You have no idea..." he chuckles.

~~~

After school I head home to get changed, get dressed, then run to the zeta tube to head to the cave to wait on Wally. I'm wearing sunglasses to conceal my eyes with my outfit that I find incredibly cute. I'm guessing Wally will too.

Megan comes to greet me. "You're so cute!" she gushes.

"You don't think it's too much?" I ask.

"It looks perfect on you," she affirms.

"Thanks."

"Recognized: Robin, B01."

"Well, well, well," Robin jeers, catching me in his eyes, his own a mixture of different emotions. "You look really nice."

I smile. "Thanks, Boy Wonder."

"So, Wally gets out of school in about an hour," Robin tells me.

"I guess we could watch some tv or something," I shrug. "Megan, where's Connor?"

"I believe he's taking a shower," Megan says. "He fell in a mud puddle at after school today."

I giggle. "Really?"

"Yeah, he was distracted by something," she admits. "I don't know what though."

"How unlike him," I comment.

"That's what I thought."

"Have you asked him about it?"

"He didn't want to tell me," she says.

"Huh... Well, have you two been on a date yet?" I ask.

"Date? W-why would we go on a d-d-date?"

"Because you're obviously going out," Robin scoffs. "It's not like you don't constantly kiss in this cave. Cameras everywhere, remember?"

Her normally green cheeks become completely pink. "Completely forgot about those..."

Robin and I giggle as we head to the living room to watch the tv. After a while, Connor comes to meet us after his shower.

"What's up?" Connor asks.

"Waiting for Wally to get here," I respond.

"Oh, right, you're going on a date," Connor says.

"You should take Megan out today too," I reply, looking up at him. "It's what normal teenagers do."

"We're far from normal," Connor scoffs.

"Very true," I admit. "But we can at least try by doing normal human things."

"Recognized: Kid Flash, B03."

"Looks like your date is here..." Robin sighs.

I stand up and we head toward the mission room. Wally zips up to me once he sees me and snaps a picture of us on his phone.

"Hello, beautiful. You look great," Wally says. "You ready to see Alpha and Omega?"

"Interesting choice," I comment.

"I thought it'd be cool," Wally says, leaning toward Robin.

"Well, let's go! I'm ready for some popcorn!" I cheer.

"Have fun!" Megan shouts as we leave to Central City.

We arrive at the city, and I nervously look around. I haven't been here for awhile. It looks the same, but I don't feel like I belong to be back yet.

"Hellooo? Earth to Bolt? You okay?" Wally shouts, waving a hand in front of my face and snapping me out of my thoughts. "You zoned out."

"Oh, sorry. I never thought I would be here," I comment. "In the city of speedsters."

He chuckles. "Well, I have the whole rest of the day figured out. This is going to be a lot of fun."

"So, we walking or running to the movies?" I ask.

"Well, the movie starts in... 10 minutes?!" he shouts. "I thought we had more time! Running! I guess we're running!"

"Superspeed race?"

"You don't even know where the movie theater is."

"Oh, right..." I sigh. This identity thing is really annoying at times... "Race after?"

"Deal," he says, grabbing my hand and running at superspeed.

I laugh as we race through the streets, arriving at the theater in no time. We get the tickets and head up to get snacks.

"Give me two of the biggest bags of popcorn you got," I say. "Four boxes of gummy worms, snow caps, sour patch, and normal Skittles. Also a large thing of nachos and grape Powerade."

"Same for me except a coke for my drink," Wally says.

We look at the horror stricken face of the lady behind the counter.

"We have an extremely high metabolism," Wally and I declare.

I hand her my card, and she gathers all the food.

"Will you take a picture of us?" Wally asks her, handing her his phone.

I look at him confused as he picks up all his food. We smile as she takes the picture. She hands him his phone back, and we take all our food to the movie.

~~~

After the movie's over, we head to the arcade.

"So, this isn't really a date, is it?" I ask, beating him in a game.

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"You only asked to get on Robin's nerves, right?"

"Darn, I've been caught," he chuckles. "Was I that obvious?"

"I'm not stupid," I scoff. "I'm about as smart as Batman himself."

"Speaking of Batman, the way you told him off was so awesome! I've never seen anyone stand up to Batman! Not even Superman!"

I laugh. "I could name quite a few villains that do."

He chuckles. "Well, I meant superheroes."

"Yeah, superheroes..." I mumble. "So, this has been fun, kicking your ass at about every game here, but I'm getting bored."

"We can race?"

"That's more like it," I say, happily. "Lead the way to the race area!"

He picks me up and zooms out of there to an old airport. He sets me down. "This is where Flash and I practice."

"Roomy," I comment, looking around and getting in position. "Ready? To the end and back?"

Wally gets next to me and nods. "Ready, beautiful. Quick pic first." We both grin as he takes the picture.

"Are you sending these all to Robin?

He smirks. "Yep."

I chuckle. "Of course you are. Alright, 3... 2... 1... GO!" I shout.

We push off the ground and dash off. We are head to head, but we both pass the finish line, and I obviously won.

"I won!" we both shout then look at each other. "No, I did! Stop copying me! I won!" We both end up in laughter.

"We can settle this by getting Flash out here," Wally declares.

"Uh, I-I'm sure Flash is busy with something else," I say, not wanting to visit Flash.

"I'm sure it's fine," Wally says. "He's been wanting to meet you."

"I'm sure he has..." I sigh.

He quickly sweeps me up into his arms. "Let's go!"

"Wait! You can't just reveal his secret I.D. to me!" I shout.

"It's not like nobody knows who he is already," Wally says. "I know you've read all the description profiles of everyone."

"Most of them don't tell you their real name," I scoff.

"Flash's does," Wally comments.

"I know," I scoff. "I just don't want to meet him, okay?"

"Why?" he asks, looking at me confused. "Are you scared to meet him?"

"Yes..."

"There's nothing to be scared of," he reassures. "He wouldn't hurt a fly."

"He's a superhero, he hurts a lot of things."

"Touché, but that doesn't matter. We're going! Come on then!" He takes off and rushes into a house. "Uncle Barry!"

"Jesus kid! You can't keep speeding in here like that!" Barry huffs, standing up from the couch and turning to us. "W-who is this?"

"My date! Aka Bolt!" Wally proclaims. "We need you to tell us who's faster!"

"You're dating?" Barry asks.

"No, we're just messing with Robin," Wally says, setting me down.

Barry sighs. "It's nice to meet you, Bolt. I'm Bar–"

"B-Barry Allen aka Flash aka Wally's uncle," I cut off.

"How did you know?"

"I read your p-profile," I simply answer. "I like to snoop into things I p-probably s-shouldn't..."

"You got that right," Barry scolds. "Does Batman know about this?"

"Probably," I shrug.

He sighs. "Superhero children, it'd be a good idea they said, it'd be better they said..."

"Besides Batman only cares if I find out his secret I.D. or Robin's anyway," I say. "Finding out Robin's is f-finding out Batman's."

"Very true," Wally admits with a shrug.

"I guess I probably would've f-found out your s-secret identity eventually anyway. I could connect Wally to you fairly easily," I admit. "Especially with Iris being on tv."

"Iris isn't on my profile, how do you know about her?" Barry asks skeptically.

"I'm a lot like Robin in collecting research. It's not like it's hard though because you're married," I admit. "I know everyone's secret identity but Robin's and Batman's. Not that I really care to find out."

"But you looked up everyone else," Barry says.

"I was bored," I admit.

"Right..."

"So, Uncle Barry, could you tell us who's faster?" Wally asks.

"How about after lunch? Iris is making my favorite," Barry says.

"I-Iris is here?" I hesitantly ask.

"Yep, right in the kitchen," Barry says, speeding off to the kitchen.

We follow after him, and Iris turns to us with slight shock on her face. "I don't have enough food for three speedsters. I only made enough for Barry."

"That's okay," I say. "We ate a lot during the movie."

"Yeah, that's completely burned out!" Wally huffs.

I sigh. "I was waiting to test this out by myself but..." I take my bag and pull out a vile of powder.

"What's that?" Wally asks.

"This is a little something I made to act like a seasoning for speedsters. You sprinkle it on any food and it fills you up. At least... it's supposed to anyway. I have tried to perfect it, but I think this is the winning batch."

"You can do things like that?!" Wally exclaims. "That's so cool!"

"Iris, are you going to be joining us?" Barry asks.

"No, I ate a late breakfast," Iris admits. "So, go ahead and do your little experiment."

"Sweet!" Wally cheers.

I pop off the top and sprinkle a pinch on top of the macaroni. "Voila! Hopefully, this will work..."

"And if it doesn't?" Barry asks.

"Then it doesn't work," I shrug. "It shouldn't have any bad after effects."

"That's good, so let's eat!" Wally says, gathering a plateful of different food on his plate.

Barry and I do the same thing, and we all begin to eat. We begin to get full, and I realize that my seasoning worked.

"It really worked..." Barry says amazed. "I'm stuffed."

"How did you do that?" Wally asks.

"I got the idea from your protein bars," I say.

"I'm impressed," Barry says. "You're gifted."

I give an embarrassed smile. "Thanks."

"Now, let's go see who won that race?" Barry says, suiting up.

Wally and I give each other a challenging smirk as we get into our own costumes.