"I'm sorry, things have been just so hectic lately. Please isn't there anything I can do?" I have been pleading to the lady on the other end of the phone for half an hour. Long story short, I have forgotten to do all of my homeschooling work for the past week and now I am failing online school. Because of this, I am being forced back to regular high school.

Not only is that a bad thing because I have to go out and save the city non stop, but I am a genius. School for me is death. People use me as a homework pass and the worst part is, I don't know when I am being used because, ironically, my two hundred something IQ is incapable of knowing when someone is being nice and when someone is being a cheater. So apparently I have to start school in two days. Great.

"There is no arguing, Ms. Richards. I am emailing your schedule to you now." With that she hangs up the phone. I stomp back into the Cortex, forgetting all about the argument Barry and I just had. I look around to see that everyone who was previously in the room has left and now Joe and Iris occupy the space. 

"Joe, did you know that I was being sent back to regular school?" I try to contain my anger in respect for my foster dad.

"I found out yesterday, sorry I didn't tell you." It sounded like he knew that I was going to confront him. Meanwhile, Iris is giving me a death stare.

"What?"I ask her.

"What did you do to Barry?" Her voice is harsh.

"Oh, I stabbed him in the leg with a scalpel."

"I'm not talking about what you physically did to him. What did you say to him? I haven't seen him this sad since his mom died."

"I don't know," I say truthfully. I don't know what I said to him.

Iris sighs and says, "You are going to need something to wear to school. We are going shopping after you apologize to Barry."

Ugh shopping. Ugh apologizing.

-*-

"Hey bare," I say softly as I stride into the STAR Labs trauma room. Barry is back in bed, his gaze blank and unfocused. He doesn't answer, he doesn't say a word. I continue to talk, "I have to start school tomorrow. Yay me."

Barry still doesn't answer. He doesn't even move, he just sits there staring at nothing. I inhale and then exhale and continue to talk. "Look Barry, I am apologizing."

Nothing.

"Okay. I am not just apologizing for stabbing you. I am apologizing for everything."

Blink.

"I am sorry for not being there for you."

He glances in my direction but immediately looks back at nothing, blankness on his face.

"I have been so concerned about how I am going to help the situation that I haven't even stopped to ask you if you were ok. I am so sorry Barry."

Nothing. Total depression.

"Okay," I say sternly as I walk over to the bedside. I sit down and then pull Barry by his shoulders until he is completely sat up. His expression is still blanker than a piece of paper. "The other day I came and sat with you to make me feel better. Now I am here to make you feel better."

I pull him close and let his head lay against my shoulder. I stroke his soft hair and sightly rock him back and forth. I try to think of something else Barry would to if our positions were switched. He sniffs and I feel my shirt get wet with tears.

"It's going to be okay Barry," I say strongly. "You are going to be fine."

"Thank you," he sniffs. After a while, Barry falls asleep, still leaning against my shoulder. I carefully set him back down on the reclined bed. I stare at him, weird I know, and smile. He is going to be okay.

"Creep," Cisco says from behind me.

"Your a creep," I say defensively, but I can't contain my laughter.

-*-

"I absolutely hate shopping," I groan as Iris leads me into yet another store. I have already cashed out my credit card because Iris insists on buying the most expensive clothes in the mall.

"This is fun," she exclaims. I shake my head.

"What are these clothes?" I say as I pull out a pair of shorts that are short enough to be underwear.

"Oh those are cute, grab them," Jesse says. When we said we were going shopping she insisted on coming.

"Oh no, that is where I draw the line. Plus I have no more money; believe it or not, saving the city from evil metahumans doesn't pay very well."

"I'll pay for the rest," Jesse says. On our way into the dressing room Iris grabs a few more scandalous items of clothing.

"I wear skinny jeans and STAR Labs shirts," I say rolling my eyes as Iris makes me try on a new shirt. It's a black long sleeve shirt that crops really low ing the front and has a shoelace type string to fill the space. I tie the lace up so nothing is showing at all then I walk out of the dressing room to show the two shopping-crazy girls.

"What are you doing. The string is supposed to be untied," says Iris.

"No," I say sternly. "Why can't I just get a regular t-shirt and some jeans."

"Because when you go to high school, everyone judges what you look like," Jesse says. "Well that's what it's like on Earth two anyways."

"It's like that everywhere," Iris agrees.

"I don't care!" I honestly don't care what people think of what I wear. I'm there to do my work and then leave so I can go beat up crazy people. My eyes drift over to a red display and my feet follow. A variety of Flash shirts gleam over me.

"I think I'll get one of these," I say to no one. I pull a bright red shirt down and grab a pair of black jeans to match it. I see Jesse and Iris smile from behind me. 

"Okay, looks like our work here is done," says Iris. 

-*_

I walk through the door of my first period class to greet thirty eight senior eyes all staring at me. My heart starts to race as my brain tries to comprehend all of the people that I don't know. 

"You must be our new student, Dawn Richards?"

I nod slowly, still having a mini panic attack. The only people I have had to talk to in the past two years have been the ones who work at STAR Labs or the ones who live at my house. This is very overwhelming. 

"Dawn how old are you?" The teacher says. He has greying hair and a beard which makes him look like santa clause. 

"Sixteen," I answer softly. Why does he wanna know how old I am?

"This is a college level class, Ms. Richards. I think this course may be challenging for you."

"Give me a math problem," I say rolling my eyes. Honestly I just want this whole school thing to be over. 

"17x33" 

"That's insulting," I tell him. "Give me a problem that I couldn't do in kindergarten."

"Fine. 534 x 13 to the second power divided by 1436."

After about seven or so seconds I answer with confidence, "62.845." Someone in the room uses a calculator to check my answer. 

"She's right," they say. The teacher's jaw drops. 

"Well class, looks like we have a genius."

The rest of school was boring as expected. Every class I went to had the same reaction to me. The only part of school that didn't make me want to crawl in a hole was lunch, ironically. 

I sat down at an empty table and started eating. I was just reading my book perfectly content with the fact that I was sitting alone, when a boy with short, dark hair came and sat across from me. 

"So you like the Flash?" He points to my shirt. 

"Uh.. yeah," I say shyly, not making eye contact. 

"He's cool," says the boy. "That girl Flash is better though. She gets a lot more done."

I smile and look up. This kid knows what he is talking about. 

We talked the rest of lunch. 

------

A/N: Sorry this is trash:(