-After School Clubs-

.Terra.

Hm. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the government pipes in again.

There was a letter in my mailbox when I got home yesterday explaining that there would be 'Marked Centers' opening up in various cities around the world for the heroes and villains to have a safer environment to be in.

My parents had me read the letter to them aloud.

"These Marked Centers, also known as MCs, will be open in areas near groupings of young Marked heroes and villains, and we are glad to inform you that a MC will be opening up in Lanesburg. It's address is 74 NW Main St and is open 24 hours a day. The men and women that work there are members of the HVPA, and after school jobs for the Marked are available. The center will be split into two areas, one where the Marked can hang out with unmarked, and the other area will be made into an environment where Marked can be completely themselves without regrets."

"Oh, it sounds wonderful, Tarah," Laura exclaimed as she pulled me into a warm hug while sipping her morning tea. Kevin nodded his excitement.

I opened up the pamphlet included with the letter. "It sounds so cool! In the Marked rooms there are several areas where we can use our powers and things like that, they even have a section of forest behind the center where I can use my powers," I murmured, the last part being mostly to myself.

I stuffed the pamphlet into my backpack before finishing my glass of orange juice and saying goodbye.

Running across the street, I picked up Nate and Rae and the three of us headed for the bus stop. It started raining again, right as the bus came into view, so I climbed up the slippery bus steps, thankful for my luck. Taking a window seat next to Raven and in front of Nate, I heard the driver fumble with his speaker before announcing the 'no eating on the bus' rule again, before muttering a few curses at us all.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw three figures running towards the bus, but the bus driver didn't seem to notice. As the bus roared to life, I quickly recognized the pink spec running towards us.

Without thinking, I hollered 'stop' which did nothing to the driver except have a smirk on his old and wrinkled face as he stepped on the gas pedal.

Oh no, he wouldn't get off that easy.

Rae looked at me with an eyebrow raised as I put my backpack on my lap, hiding my hands, which were glowing yellow at the moment. I just smirked as a sudden movement in the earth caused a small tree to fall and cover half of the road. Of course, the bus driver, as well as the other people on the bus, weren't expecting this, so the vehicle came to a sudden screeching halt, allowing Jinx and whoever she was with to catch up. As the snobby bus driver reported the fallen tree to whoever was on the other end of his radio, Jinx pried open the doors and came in, looking at me with a mischievous smile, which I returned.

She sat down in front of us, another girl filling in next to her as the boy who came in behind them sat with some other people in the back of the bus.

"Thanks, Tarah," Jenn said as she turned around in her seat to speak to me. I nodded with a smile and the girl next to her turned around to face me, a questioning look on her eyes. "Oh, right, this is Kirsten Johnson, She lives a little while down the street--"

"What number house are you?" I suddenly asked, assuming she was also on Princeton Dr. Thinking back to the day I found out Rae lived across the street, I remember seeing a mail box that said Kyng on it...

"I'm in 23 Princeton Dr," she said, arching an eyebrow at my question.

I beamed. "I'm 25 and Rae is 26!" I exclaimed it a little too loud and received a few 'shh!'s from people sitting near by and blushed.

.Jinx.

I couldn't tell them that there was something peculiar about Kirsten, or Kiki (her nickname). She just seemed... I don't know. I feel like I've met her before...

When I saw her today she, and Caleb, were running down the street and I recognized it as an action I did the day before. Run for the bus.

It wasn't until I crept on the bus with her and Caleb that I noticed what she looked like. Sure, we exchanged small talk on the run there, but just our names and things like that. She was adopted and went to live with the Johnsons not too long ago.

Looking at her now as she sat next to me, I finally got a good look at her. She had brownish black hair that was french braided into pig tails. She had a light green turtle neck, a white vest, khaki pants, black sneakers, and a black belt with a faded gold looking buckle. Her eyes were an emerald green, as if they were stop lights with light shining through them. She had a faint bridge of freckles and seemed pretty in shape when running.

"Oh, so, did you guys hear about the MC?" Tarah's question caught me off guard and I saw that the school was approaching.

"MC?" Kirsten asked.

My eyes widened, it was the Marked Center, but I couldn't say that... "It's a center named after the founder, Mark Collins," Raeann said simply, handing Kirsten a different pamphlet then the one I had gotten in the mail. It said 'Visitor's Copy' on the outside, and I sighed. Phew.

As we got off the bus, Tarah automatically ran to find Bryce while Rae, Kristen, and I looked around for anyone we knew.

Before we were allowed inside, we had to stand outside, and since the rain stopped, there was no problem with us being outside.

"Hey, would you check this kid out?"

"What's his deal?"

"Come on, blondie, do something."

Looking over to where a crowd of kids stood, huddled in a circle, it was attracting attention fast.

Raising an eyebrow, Rae and I silently agreed to check it out, Kristen in tow. As we pushed, shoved, and elbowed our way to get a good view, the first thing I saw was a tall and well built guy shadowing whoever he was yelling at.

The tall guy, who I assumed was named Derrick from the chants and murmurs circulating around him, was backed up by what looked like the rest of the football team, and he matched them with a jersey with 'Stone' on the back, and I pitied whoever they were ganging up against.

Moving a bit to see the prey, I gasped, Raven mirroring the gesture as we recognized the blond haired boy.

Jericho!

I heard whispering behind me and tuned my ears into the conversation, my eyes still resting on the bully who was yelling at the deaf boy. "I can't believe this kid is picking a fight with Derrick! That's like digging his own grave!"

"What happened?" Another voice piped in.

A third voice answered. "The blond kid is Hayden Brown, new kid. Seems like we've gotten a bunch of them recently. Anyway, he was walking towards the door and stepped on 'Derrick's property', his self chosen piece of the walkway. And when Derrick told Hayden to apologize and he didn't..."

My eyes widened, this idiot didn't know he was deaf!

"Come on, what are you gonna do? Just stand there? I said apologize or fight!" Derrick's voice rang loud as chants of 'fight' echoed throughout the 'arena'. Jericho, er, Hayden, looked confused, caught off guard, and not the least bit scared, which didn't help his cause.

Dressed in jeans and a loose green T-shirt, he blended in pretty well. I could only imagine what they'd say if Jericho was wearing the purple shirt and was carrying around his guitar. "Come on, Stone, bury him in the ground!" One kid screamed.

"Punch him!"

"KICK HIM TO THE CURB!"

"Hit him so hard his doctor will wake up!"

I bit my lip, wanting to say something, but not sure how.

Suddenly, Derrick advanced towards Jericho, cracking his knuckles as his shadow loomed over Jericho. Without thinking, I threw myself forward, putting my hands out protectively in front of Jericho and standing between him and Derrick.

"He's deaf, back off." I muttered it as simple as I could put it, since this guy didn't seem like he'd have an easy time passing fourth grade math.

Derrick rose an eyebrow, not questioning who I was or where I came from. "So, he can't hear me?"

I shook my head. "He can hear you, he can't reply." He looked confused. "So, back off."

Now I had caught his attention. "No one tells the Stone to back off," he huffed.

"Oh yeah? Well I did it twice."

By now the students were booing me and still begging for a fight, and I wondered where the teachers were to break this up.

Just then, a gang of five or six of the other foot ball players stepped behind 'Stone' to add to the 'intimidation' factor. I suddenly felt out numbered. I surely could fight off seven guys like them if I was Jinx, but I'm not. I'm Jenn Kyng, the best I can claim to do is karate and gymnastics.

"I'd leave if I were you, little girl," one of them piped up. They all stood between 5'6" and 6' something.

I stood my ground. "I'm not leaving unless you let me take Hayden with me," I stated, looking over my shoulder to Jericho, who returned my look with a grateful one. "So take it or leave it."

One of the other football players scoffed. "You're gonna fight us?" I nodded and they all laughed. "You and what army?"

They looked around with glares that asked 'Who else dares stand up to us?' The group of students took a step back, but I felt a presence come by my right, and I saw Kirsten standing there, putting her hands in a 'bring it on' motion before going into a Tae Kwon Doe stance. "How cute," the guys muttered before the seven of them advanced towards the three of us like a cat stalking its prey.

Before they could reach us, or we could fight back, two more figures stepped in the way. I recognized Speedy, er, Sam, but the other took me a little bit before I recognized the Atlantean. "You aren't planning on taking out these girls without a real fight, were you?" Aqualad asked as he and Speedy stepped out from either side of the circle, pacing until they were back to back in front of Kirsten and I, with Jericho behind us.

"Back off, pretty boy," one said to Aqualad, another repeating the words to Speedy. Before more could be done, Bryce peeks into the action and joins in. Ty not long after, then Rae and Tarah. A few other kids we didn't know went forward too, the last being Kid Wykkyd, who stood towards the front. Marked and unmarked united to fend off the bullies, all for Jericho.

Glaring at all of us, the team decided 'they aren't worth it', before swearing they'd get us back and moving somewhere else. As they left, the crowd dissolved and the ones that stood up for Hayden cheered.

"You definitely know how to make a name for yourself," Ty said with a small smile as he came up behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder. Smirking, I shrugged it off (his hand and his compliment).

"Was nothing," I murmured before receiving a tap on my other shoulder. Looking up, I saw Hayden there, a smile on his face as he nodded his head, in gratitude, I assumed.

The morning bell rang and we went inside, but not before I accidentally bumped into two people on my way in. One was Caleb, so I felt no regret, but the other was Aqualad.

"Sorry," I murmured.

He looked at me and must have recognized me, because he smiled. "No problem," he replied. It was then I realized I didn't even know his name, and he must have remembered that too, because, next thing I knew he was extending his hand. "Alex Kennedy, at your service," he said with a laugh.

I nodded. "Jenn Kyng."

"Ahh, so you must be the Jenn Kyng that Caleb has talked about." I rose an eyebrow as the pest stood behind Aqualad with a large grin on his face.

"You know the king of dweebs?" I asked, disbelieving.

He laughed. "He's my 'cousin'," Alex said, air quoting 'cousin' as I realized he must have been placed into the family.

I rolled my eyes before saying, "You don't know how bad I feel for you," and then saying goodbye as we parted to our separate homerooms.

.Raven.

By the time third period World History rolled around, I was already bored of school. In homeroom, the only 'marked' one there was Jericho, and Hayden seemed as interested in school as I did. And we couldn't really carry out a conversation, so the class seemed to drone on and on. In second period I had Bryce with me, but I realized he must have never understood a word Mas y Menos said since his Spanish skills were about as good as his humor.

Now that I was in history, I was at least glad that there was a topic I could be interested in. Medal times.

But, of course, the teacher, Mrs. Luville, decided that 'It's about time to have another group project'. And since I was new, I didn't really end up in any of the cliques the other kids went into, and I was one of the last three to join a group. When you have three neglected students, instead of making another group let them in, Mrs. Luville decided that it would be a great chance for us to make friends with each other.

So I found myself working with Kyle Decarte, who was the one who captured me for the Brotherhood of Evil, and another boy, Tim Ore. Tim was extremely quiet, which was saying something since Kyle and I weren't exactly chatterboxes. He, Tim, seemed like he was deliberately trying to keep a distance from me.

"So, what do you want to do the project on?" I asked, being the conversation starter for once. My voice was dripping with disinterest.

Tim timidly looked away and something in my mind clicked. Tim Ore, or timore, meant fear in Italian. Hah. Explains something.

Kyle showed a bit of interest, but interest isn't enthusiasm. "We can pick anything from the Medieval times, right? How about magic?"

I could have guessed that our group end up doing that.

And during the remaining class period we decided to research demonology and angelology, which were two of the varieties of Christianized magic in the Middle Ages. Kyle and Tim would team up to research on demonology while I was left with angelology.

"We can meet at my house after school to start," Kyle suggested as we all packed up our books to leave. "My parents won't be home, but we can manage."

I nodded and found myself blushing a bit as the brown haired and greened eyed ex-sorcerer smiled at me. Realizing the shade that my cheeks were taking, I turned away, wondering what made me blush. All he did was smile, and not even a month ago he handed me over to people who were ready to kill me.

"Are you sure Raeann needs to come too?" Tim asked in a quiet voice. "She's not even doing demonology, I don't see why she needs to go." I saw him stare at me as if looking at a demon off the page, hah, if only he knew. He was eyeing my purple hair and white blouse then my black pants and boots but when he looked at my face he caught me glaring back. "Well, I-I mean, she, uh, might get bored since she's, um, researching a different topic, is all," he added in a poor attempt to save himself.

Kyle shook his head and I realized that this was the most I had ever heard him speak. "No, she's part of the group." He then turned to me, "Then again, if you will get bored, you don't have to come. It's up to you."

As all three of us walked out of the door, we decided to figure out what was going on during lunch so we had enough time to get to our classes. Kyle held the door open for Tim and me and, before we could say good bye, Tim scurried off, practically running.

I sighed, yet another person running away from me, well, not that I really cared.

"Don't mind him, he's just weird," Kid Wykkyd whispered to me as he walked by, waving a short goodbye. Feeling that blush rise again as my cheeks felt his warm breath make contact with them, I slapped those same cheeks.

What the hell is wrong with me? Hmph. Stupid Kid Wykkyd. Stupid Tim.

.Beastboy.

"Dude, this place sounds awesome!" Jake exclaimed, looking at the Visitor's Copy of the pamphlet I had gotten in the mail. "I mean, check out the skate ramps and stuff they have there!"

"Apparently, this place used to be some private boarding school kind of place," Tarah murmured as she, Jake, Nate, and I whispered in the back of the health room.

Nate was the next one to look over the list of things they had at the MC. "Whoa, they even have a snack bar in between the pool and the gym," he read aloud. "Rae and I are heading there after school, Mom's having us go, do you guys wanna come?"

Tarah nodded her head eagerly and I replied with a quick 'sure'. Jake claimed he wouldn't pass for anything, so before I knew it we all planned to meet up by the flag pole.

"Get anyone else you want to come," Nate added before we were caught.

"Mr. Barton," Mr. Gargahan called. Jake and I exchanged confused looks. "Either of you, and Mr Maguire and Miss Harvey too. Unless you are talking about the inside of an eye or ear, I wouldn't be talking or you'll be spending time after class to discuss them. Understood?" A few snickers across room were heard as we mumbled a low 'yes'.

All four of us shut up after that, each too eager to go to the MC after school then to risk it by goofing off.

.Kid Flash.

Wow. This is what, my third day of school, and I've been asked to some Masquerade ball by girls I've never even met before.

I saw Shawn in the hall and poured out my complaints and he just laughed and ruffled my hair, claiming that 'it's because of the name'. I assumed that meant he was going through the same thing.

As gym class ended, I saw Jenn talking to Sam, an aggravated look on her face as she glanced over at me while I was fending off a couple of girls. When she saw me looking, she turned away and I took this as a chance to tease her.

"Looks like some one's getting a visit from the green monster," I teased, playfully pulling on Jinx's ponytail. She blew a hair away from her face in annoyance. "From the looks of it, you look j-e-a-l-o-u-s."

Sam looked at me with this look that warned me, 'watch it'. But Jenn didn't give me time to react. "Why would I be jealous of you?" I smirked and Sam leaned over and whispered that I meant the girls that were asking me out and she shrieked. "I AM NOT JEALOUS!"

"Suure," I teased.

While waiting for the bell to ring, the three of us stood in the hallway, Speedy and I with our backs to the wall while Jinx stood in front of us.

"Did you guys hear? BB asked me if I heard about the MC that opened up a couple of blocks away. It seems like he and a bunch of other people are heading down there after school, are you guys going to go?" Speedy asked to break the silence.

I shrugged. "I'll go, if BB is going, Jake and Nate probably are, which means my brother, Shawn, will end up there." Jenn and Sam looked at me as if to say 'no explanation needed', "So I'll be there," I concluded.

"I don't know," Jenn said cautiously. "If he's going, I probably wouldn't want to." A witty reply was already forming on the tip of my tongue but she reached out, putting a finger on my lips to keep me from talking. "I was kidding. Now that I'm Jenn, I have virtually no life out of school. I'd go even if you were too."

.Jinx.

Walking over to the flag pole after the last bell rang, I was excited to go to the MC. Apparently, so was everyone else because they were all restlessly waiting for my arrival since I was the last one there.

Looking at the group of people going, it'd be fun. I hope.

There was Bryce, Jake, Tarah, Nate, Ty, Sam, Alex, Kirsten, and I. "Where's Rae?" I asked Tarah while the nine of us began walking downtown. "And I thought Shawn was going to be here too."

She shrugged. "Well, Rae has some History project to work on with Kid-- I mean, Kyle, so she bailed. And, obviously, because she's with him, Kyle isn't coming either. And--"

"Shawn got grounded," Ty said with a laugh. "He left a skateboard at the bottom of the stairs again and Dad slipped. If our dog, Liam, wasn't there to break his fall, who knows what would have happened." He laughed again, but added that Liam was okay.

While approaching the large building which was to be the MC, large was hardly the right word.

Bryce and Jake's jaws dropped as they took in the sight. "Whoa! DUDES, this is like school and a half!" Bryce exclaimed, comparing the building to our high school. "CHECK. IT. OUT!"

We all laughed and entered where we were asked which area we would like to go in. Confused, the woman at the desk asked to look at one of the pamphlets that we brought with us. Tarah handed over hers and the woman nodded. "Anyone have one not marked 'Visitor's Copy'?" She asked, putting an emphesis on marked. Ahh, then it made sense.

There were several check in points and each of us were taken at a seperate one.

Going into the small booth-like area, I was greeted by an older woman, her kind face accented with wrinkles. "Hello, and welcom to the MC. Can I ask how I may help you?"

I rose an eyebrow and looked around the booth, the door having closed behind us. There were no windows and only two doors, a desk, two chairs, and a computer. "Is it soundproof?" I asked. The woman nodded. "And I'm safe here?" I asked again. She repeated her previous answer. "I'm a marked," I murmured in a hushed voice.

The woman nodded with a knowing smile. "Please fill this out."

I obliged, hoping with all my might that this form would not get into the wrong hands. I had to fill out my real name, my new name, my birthday, height, weight, and things like that to make sure I checked out as a real marked. The woman took my completed form when I was done, scanned it, and automatically put it into a paper shredder that was hidden behind the desk.

Something printed out a laminated ID tag too, because I didn't see that machine when I walked in. My picture was on it, with my name, address, phone number, and school. "This is a member pass," she explained, handing it to me with a small metal clip so I could clip it to the pocket of my pants. "Just have it with you and you won't need to go though a booth again."

I took it and thanked her before exiting through the door behind her into a huge hallway where Jake, Nate, Kirsten, and Tarah waited for me.

"God, that check in took forever," Jake complained, his hands pulling the skin under his eyes down as he rolled his eyes. "The guy was like 'How can I help you?' and I was like 'I want to skate' and he goes 'Can you mark your name on this sign in list?' and I was like 'yeah'. I had to sign my name and give my address and then they let me in."

So he didn't get a memebr pass... Tarah turned to me, her back to the guys, and showed me her small ID card that she clipped to the waist of her skirt. I nodded and pointed to mine, and when Bryce and Ty came out of their booths, I saw them pocket theirs.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Jake and Nate asked in unison, before raising their skateboards and wiggling their eyebrows. Bryce and Tarah hnodded to each other and ran off down the hall looking for the skate room, leaving Sam, Alex, Kirsten, Ty, and I.

"I want to explore the place a bit," I murmured, looking at an illustration on a nearby wall of the building and everything in it.

Kirsten voiced that she felt like swimming, and Alex couldn't have been happier to agree. Sam ended up going with them after the three made sure there were swimming suits that could be provided.

That left me and Kid Flash. "Sooo. Any place you're looking for in particular?" He asked me while I began walking down the hall.

I shrugged. "Well..." I slowed down so I walked along side him. "Once we check into the marked area, I know there's a track and you look like you've been bottling up way too much energy. THat, and I heard there's a target practice place and I can substitute bows and arrows for a few spells."

He didn't look so sure. "How do we know we're safe here?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow and looking around as if people were already watching us.

"I... can't explain it. But I feel safe here. Like... really safe. I feel like this is the only place in the world that I can be, well, me. Not Jenn me, but Jinx me. I miss it."

"The guy in my check in booth told me to look for any doors that have a black door frame, in contrast to the ones with white door frames. The white ones are for anyone to go into, but the black ones require a swipe of our ID cards."

It wasn't long until we found the one black doorframe. Opening it, it was suprisingly unlocked, I suppose it couldn't seem to suspicious to unmarked. However, when we passed through the door, we were in another booth like check in point, where, instead of being met by a person, there was a computer. It had us swipe our member cards and write out our signitures on the screen to make sure we were who we were. After that, there was a small click and we were allowed though...

.Kid Flash.

"Wow." That was the only world Jinx and I could manage as we stepped through the first door we saw after the check in point. We were in the forest, and, like Jenn said, there was a large target practice area off to the left, and to the right was a large area with boulders and rocks and dirt piled high, resembling a laser tag arena to the effect that it was like a maze. In front of us was the forest and there was a small paved track going around it.

"Pretty sweet," I said, knowing we were only swallowing a tiny piece of what the MC has to offer. Without wasting much more time, I went straight to the track, casually running then going full out. Jenn, like she said, went to target practice and it took her a few tries to get her aim right.

"Haven't done it in a while," she murmured at my laugh as she aimed at some of the cardboard targets, some moving and some stationary.

I still wasn't sure if I felt completely safe here like Jinx did, but I suppose I can trust her and try this place out. It seriously was pretty cool, and just the fact that we can be ourselves here is pretty sweet too. I guess, yeah. I guess I can try to get used to it, but I just had this faint gut feeling that something was going to happen...

A/N: Hmm, well, to tell the truth I'm a little iffy about this chapter. I didn't have time to reread it yet and I'm just so excited that I have an update, and a pretty well lengthed one too, if that's a word, haha. So, I decided to make these MCs so the heroes (and villians) could have a little fun, but it doesn't seem like Kid Flash is ;)

Most of you guessed who Kirsten is, -claps for you-. Good job! But wait till you see the reason I brought her in, other then for someone for Speedy ;)

Also, I realized when writing this that I hadn't brought in Aqualad, and decided to bring him in, also for Speedy, because both don't seem to get along with all of the others as well. Not that they're best buddies in the show, haha. So I brought him in.

And I also wanted to bring in Jericho. Don't know why, but I felt like, (feels bad saying it), he's perfect prey in a high school, so I kind of wanted him to one, bring everyone together, and later on he'll end up keeping everyone together. I think, hahaha.

Well, yeah, enough of me. Here's your update, I hoped you liked it! Please review :) And I hope you guys caught the little fluff in here -shrugs- :) And I tried spellchecking this, I hope it worked...

Oh, lastly, Rae and Kyle are studying demonology and angelology, I actually went to and looked up forms of Mideval magic and those two popped up and I was like 'Okay... sure, why not?' haha.