Young Justice Oneshots

Home Is Where the Heart Is (Spitfire)

The song appearing in the story and above is Cool Kids by Echosmith^

Artemis Crock walked slowly down the sidewalk, reluctant to go back "home". Her foster parents hated her. In fact, they hated all kids to a point where they liked to see them suffer. Artemis has gotten a scholarship to the prestigious Gotham Academy for high school, and her foster parents, the Shallows (iconic last name) made sure that she was always either studying or doing chores. If she so much as went to the bathroom, she was expected to make sure it was spotless before she left. If she broke any of her so-called guardians' rules, she'd be beaten. Which she found ironic, given her past living situation.

They said it was her own fault, though. She had been bad enough that the state had sent her to this "family" that was known for correcting delinquents, such as herself. To be fair, she did realize that she acted like a little devil, being as bad as she could, knowing that her guardian wouldn't dare lay a hand on her. She knew she was being bad, but it was the coping mechanism that she used. Ever since her father abandoned her shortly after her sister ran away, Artemis looked for a distraction, and being a total brat happened to be the easiest one.

She desperately tried to procrastinate on going back to the house as she heard a trio of kids talking and laughing behind her. Richard Grayson, Barbara Gordon, and Bette Kane were the teens. They were the only kids in the entire school who were nice to Artemis. They even made efforts to be her friends, but she had to turn them down. The Shallows would never allow it.

"Hey, Artemis!" Bette said, cheery as usual.

"Hey, guys!" At least she now has a reason not to immediately go home.

"You excited about the science fair?" Richard asked.

"Yeah. I don't have a partner though, so it's probably not happening. My foster parents are insisting that I just ask if I can go solo."

"Well, how about you join us?" Barbara suggested. "Our project is about how police and detectives are able to figure out who the culprit is, via DNA."

"Sure, why not?"

"Great!" Bette beamed. "We can go to my house after school tomorrow."

"Ok. I've gotta go, thanks guys!" Artemis took off, knowing that she was already 25 minutes late as it was, the Shallows were NOT going to be happy.

She opened the back door and tried to sneak up to her room.

"And where do you think you're going?" Mr. Shallow's voice rang through the kitchen. Artemis put her hands up and turned around to face him.

"To my room, sir."

"What took you so long to get home?"

"I asked Mr. Timothy if I could do the project by myself. He said no, and if I asked again, he wouldn't let me enter the contest, so I headed home, but then a few kids asked if I wanted to do the science fair with them, so I said yes, and we sorted out the details."

"I thought that my wife and I made it very clear that we wanted you to do this ALONE Baby Girl."

Artemis immediately felt her chest tighten, her breathing get rapid.

Mr. Shallow laughed and whispered into her ear, "What, did that trigger you, BABY GIRL?" He slammed her hard against the wall. "Go to your room!"

Artemis nodded, trying to ignore the throbbing in her head and the flashbacks, and hurried upstairs. She accidentally ran into Kingsley, the Shallows' nephew, who they had adopted years ago after his mother died in a car crash. She immediately panicked. Kingsley had his eyes on her, and he was a guy who just wouldn't take no for an answer.