Like an Acorn

"Ha! In your face! Do you see that? I totally passed!" Five laughed ecstatically, shoving the graded testing sheets towards the other clone. Jumping up and down the girl waved her arms insanely attempting her own form of a victory dance. Luckily for her, dancing was not something on the aptitude test.

"I've already seen them," he replied with a roll of his eyes before crossing his large arms in annoyance. His attitude had no effect on the girl’s enthusiasm. Gaining these results meant things could start to take motion in her life.

"So you saw I passed," she asked again, hopping up and down as she did so. Five enjoyed the feeling of Cassie’s borrowed foam flip flops against her bare feet.

"I saw you got a C," he snorted less than impressed; forever a killjoy. Conner’s gloominess would not change her, even if he did throw out her scores. There were worse things than getting a C, like failing!

"Two points- Two unlucky points! I was robbed," she moaned dramatically, a smile imprinted on her face, while waving two fingers in the air. Five’s mind ran wild at all the possibilities which were now in front of her. She’d been here for seven days and had barely left her floor, now she had options. "This means you no longer get to be a total-" she started only to be cut off as Blue coughed loudly, signaling she was about to step over the line, again.

"Like she was saying.... Aqualad cleared her; last minute bonfire- you in?" Blue asked Conner politely raising a brow as he looked at the bubbly girl next to him; Five only grinned back in response. It wasn’t like she’d promised to be nice or anything.

"No," Conner grumbled his voice deepening as he stared them down with serious eyes before breaking his pause, "Who's coming?" he finally asked, now staring down the second floor hallway as if completely put out by both of them, even so he waited for an answer.

"Anyone, everyone!" Five laughed prancing backwards grabbing Blue's hand playfully. Asking Conner had been his idea, now they'd asked, he said no, now it was time to put the G-to-the-o!

“Come on, Come on, Come on! We’re going to miss the game,” Five pulled, not caring about being polite at all. All Conner ever wanted to do was complain, this was going to be her first chance to go outside, for real. She was going to have fun, no matter what. If Conner wanted to wait in the hallway like a buzz kill he could, Blue on the other hand had a very important job of teaching her “trade secrets,” before her first game of soccer. He’d promised that with utmost seriousness an hour ago. Waiting was not something she could deal with.

“Sí, Sí,” Blue laughed being frustratingly slow as Five pulled on his hand. His joking actions caused him to step on the front of Five’s flip flop, sending her flying to the ground and since she had his hand in a death clutch, him as well.

"Ow! Seriously Blue did you score poorly on your teamwork test?" The clone grinned popping up to her feet quickly, before holding out her hands to help pull him up. She found it unexpectedly fun to do so. Leaning back she used her whole body to pull him to his feet, once he was topside, she almost went tumbling back into Conner, total domino effect. Luckily she was able to regain her balance at the last second, before brushing off her denim shorts.

"No Chica, just reflexes," Blue groaned, before lazily nodding his head towards a staring Conner... Apparently Conner didn't understand the meaning of fun. "Coming hermano? Cold front heading in next week, might be your last chance for some heat this year..." he probed again gaining a shrug from the Kryptonian boy.

"Whatever," he allowed trudging behind the two. This was the only validation Five needed before taking off at an almost jog for the elevator.

Five's stomach twisted with utter excitement as the elevator rose to the top level of the headquarters. It took everything in her power not to go running at full speed to the front door, a large electronic metal wall not too dissimilar to the one connected to the greenhouse. It was the only thing between the giddy clone and the outside world.

The girl's face was inches from the silvery metal as she stood on tiptoes waiting to spring into action as soon as it moved. "Wait, might as well get this out of the way," Conner ordered, causing Five to turn back with disappointment. She could practically feel the sunshine on her skin.

"Sooo close," she whined to herself, motioning to the door dramatically as she watched Conner who instead of crossing the room, went to the mega computer located on the left hand side and typed away.

"Chill, you can wait a few," he answered without emotion as he continued to type, "If you're going to be coming and going, the computer will need an identification code." He explained, telling her to take a step back from the door so the sensor could register her. The bright light blinding her momentarily as it traveled down her body taking account of her information before spilling it out in an electrically generated voice.

"Recognized: Five, B-27;" it declared before the metal doors creaked open. The sunlight hit her skin like golden rays of pure heat. The clone’s knees knocked with anxiety as she took a desperate step forward, her senses exploding with overwhelming stimulation as she stood only one foot outside of the complex. She barely noticed as Conner pushed past her, not waiting for the surprised girl to gain her barring. She scanned the thriving land around her with ravenous eyes, unable to move, unable to speak.

It was as if the whole world spoke to her, whispering in an intoxicating mix of voices. Each living thing had a different thing to say. The rumble in her ears caused her cup them in shock. Everything was speaking to her: bubbling up like a forgotten pot of water filled with the cries of joy and pain of the earth itself.

The bright light of the sun caused her blink rapidly as she looked around herself, checking out her surroundings with anticipation. Although the land was thriving with green grass, flowers, and even a few trees, the ground still rang with the pain of the explosion leaving a sour taste in Five’s mouth. It was dull like a thumping of a heart in duress, calling out to her as if to remind her of what the others said took place a little over a year ago. Easy to ignore once she worked on coaxing back the other voices in her head.

“No!” Blue hissed, responding to some unheard comment, bringing back the dazing clone to notice the boy standing patiently next to her.

“Hi,” she smiled again looking over to him as she said the only thing which would come to mind. The strange look he gave her made Five blush in the cheeks. Hi… Really?—Smooth much.

“Hi,” he laughed back shaking his head as if embarrassed by his own outburst, fingers digging deeply into his basketball short pockets. Five couldn’t help but stare at his nervous form more than she should have.

Silence enveloped around the two, both pausing on what to say.

“So….” He said rolling his eyes up as if trying to think of something witty to add to the end, coming up short. For a moment Five wanted to reassure him, to tell Blue she didn’t think he was crazy for speaking to himself. She heard voices too. Yet, her voices were real, she didn’t know if his were. So the words never left her mouth instead the moment passed and she answered his open question the best she could.

“Soccer,” she reminded him with a serious look, watching his brown eyes with fascination for a second longer before turning away to inspect the land around them.

“Football, riggghhhtttt,” he said clearing his throat awkwardly.

“Football? I’m confused… So we are not playing soccer, but playing the game where an oval ball is moved in a series of running or passing plays to try and advance across the opponents’ goal lines?” she stated words bubbling up to the surface like a computer. The facts were hard to shake, the things she learned from the G-Gnomes all meshed into her brain seemed to come out artificial more often than she would have liked.

“No, that’s American Football, Chica. It’s only called soccer in the United States, Football everywhere else,” he explained leading her away from the building as he spoke.

“But we’re in America, shouldn’t it be called Soccer?” She asked critically watching his movements carefully as she listened for his answer, as if posture could give away Blue’s thoughts. Although she wanted a thoughtful answer, he only shrugged as if the idea of arguing this point would be lost on her.

“Style choice really,” he admitted, grinning back at the staring girl.

The clone wanted to take another moment to admire the lush grass and beautiful greenery present in the headquarters’ front lawn but found herself unable to as Blue moved forward.
Walking in a quick pace after him she understood how ducklings must have felt; wobbling after someone so sure of their movements in the great big world. She wasn’t given time to properly greet Babs, Megan, or her new acquaintance Bumblebee (the girl she’d seen working intently in the training room with Static on day one) only finding a second to wave and smile at the girls who were stretched out on beach towels near the front door. On the other hand, keeping up with Blue meant she did not have to socialize with Aqualad who was having an in-depth conversation with Conner by a set of sizzling grills.

The easily sidetracked girl found it difficult to speak with the Atlanteans, her eyes always wandering to their physical differences: gills, webbed appendages, strange colors and shapes- fins, it was enough to make Five stare (more than usual). Staring at people for long periods of time was apparently unsettling; the strange looks she had gotten at first had hit that point home. She had disliked it, so it was obvious the others would not appreciate her long looks either.

Five was pulled from her thoughts as she looked at her toes with curiosity; the feeling of grass brushing her skin was absolutely delightful. She was taken in by the semi-dry texture which tickled her feet with every microscopic movement. The clone had the sudden urge to fling herself to the ground and roll around; she wanted to know what the living texture truly felt like.

Instead she found herself pulled into the brewing argument directed towards Bart as they finally reached the waiting group.

“Cheating? Me, no. That would be totally mode and I am obviously not totally mode, so yeah,” Bart argued self-righteously. “It was two against one, I can’t help if you can’t keep up T-Robin,” he paused replacing whatever he was going to call the sunglasses wearing boy with something different.

“Yo, Blue explain to your friend that speedster powers are disqualifying,” Robin argued waving his hands towards Bart with exasperation.

“Using speedster powers is disqualifying,” Blue mirrored back a grin now on his face as he lightly mocked the Gotham Bird.

“But,” Bart whined, his eyes looking around the group of six frantically for support, finding none.

“No buts! Cheating is Cheating!” Cassie declared poking the younger boy’s chest with her index finger roughly. Bart let out a grunt of pain batting her hand away as he stepped back from the outspoken girl dressed in blindingly white bib overall shorts.

“Watch the super strength,” he huffed shaking his head intensely, thick brown ringlets moving with each toss, as if he couldn’t believe how they were acting.

Five only stood awkwardly as she watched the usually close friends bicker. The argument consisted mostly of Cassie and Robin reminding Bart of the difference between 2017 soccer (or football?) and the rules, from what she could tell, the reasonably similar game he had in his original time period. Although she was quickly lost the different time comments weren’t shocking since Bart enjoyed nothing more than gloating about how at 13 he basically built a time machine out of spare parts, he’s totally a genius, yada-yada-yada.

The thing about Bart was he wasn’t too humble about well, anything. Five liked this though. His pushed extroverted personality was like a little portable sun, blazing with energy she wanted to soak up. Plus it helped he was straight forward, he didn’t keep things in his head as Babs did or have the sometimes confusing mellowness which Blue portrayed. When Bart answered a question it was as fast as he did everything else, so Five falsely assumed it was the first thing which came to his impulsive mind.

“Psssstt- you catchen’ any of this?” Static whispered breaking the clone’s concentration instantly. An easy smile swallowed up her face as she shook her head no. The two of them stationary through the argument had come to find themselves feet away from the shuffling verbal confrontation. Five could not remember Cassie, Bart, Robin, or Blue moving let alone which had backed up first.

“Do they do this a lot?” Five asked motioning to the loud group with her hands. She was surprised no one else had intervened yet—besides Conner’s constant tirades, she had not seen anyone create such a fuss. Even though the sunbathing girls and Aqualad, of all people, were in earshot no one appeared to be bothered in the slightest by their yelling and Static only laughed.

“You’re lucky Babs and Conner aren’t playen’, this ain’t nothing usually I stay out ‘cause super powered verse non-super powered is too intense, you feel? But they’ve only been fighting like 10 minutes. Blue’ll break it up,” Static affirmed scratching the top of his head before covering the eye catching hair with a backwards turned blue baseball cap.

Breaking the distance with Static, Five quickly found he was right. If there was one thing Blue’s nonchalant personality was good for it was defusing Bart’s over-the-top moments. The rich skinned boy had somehow managed to mostly calm down the argument in the time it took the two of them to walk the short distance.

“Three-on-three, you can have Bart; we get Static,” Cassie finally allowed giving the speedster a dirty look before addressing Blue seriously.

“Fine, no bets then, since he doesn’t know the rules and she’s never played,” Blue shrugged as if not at all upset with his given team. Pausing Blue turned back to the blonde once more, “Also, no full-field kicks Cass,” he reminded her before taking the well-used ball out of Bart’s hands.

“Deal, take 15?” Robin asked his eyes falling to an expensive looking wrist watch.

“Si,” Blue answered already starting towards the other side of the field. Bart stuck his tongue out at the slowly moving clone as he, himself galloped backwards across the grass in front of Blue by this point it was obvious everything was a race to that kid. If Five expected any reprimandation from Blue on Bart’s teasing she would have been sorely disappointed. It was weird, the way they were together. Complete opposites, Bart seemed to do nothing but cause trouble and Blue was always there to get him out of it (or at least try).

Standing in the middle of a medium sized goal box or stretch of grass only distinguishable from the other vegetation right next to it by four florescent orange cones, Five listened intently. Lined up like solders before war Five tried to keep a straight face as Bart mocked Blue every time his pace in front of them left his back exposed. It was only playful fun. Like every joke Bart played it was meant with no harm.

“Bart, are you getting any of this? Five knows the rules, which is loco that you don’t have it down flat by this point, seriously hermano you watch it at my house,” Blue grumbled, not bothering to mention the things he’d obviously seen the younger boy doing behind his back.

“Oh, I know the rules, I just don’t want Cass to know, then she’d expect me to play by them,” Bart admitted grumbling the last part. He acted as if Blue had not wasted time explaining everything he already knew.

“Menso,” Blue complained racking his fingers through his short black hair, the teen’s white teeth literally biting his lip to hold back more insults. Apparently jokes at his expense were expected but wasted time was not permitted. “You’re goalie,” Blue instructed pointing to Bart before lightly passing the soccer ball to Five.

The clone caught it easily, she’d scored average on reflexes after all, “And I’m?” Five asked brushing a strand of her dark brown hair out of her face and behind a large ear.

“I’m going to teach you how to be a forward, like me. We don’t have enough for a full team so we’ll play with one goalie and two forwards." he explained taking a deep breath before continuing, “secret trick time,” Blue grinned wrinkling his highly attractive nose in a way that made Five’s throat suddenly dry.

“Crash!” Watcha teaching us today, Coach?” Bart interjected before Five could pull her brain together and speak. Her arms giving the soccer ball an extra tight squeeze, all the while internally groaning in annoyance at her thoughts.

Pealing her eyes off of Blue’s face Five watched as Bart started towards the field only to be redirected to the goalie box by a still grinning Blue. It was hilarious to the clone how easy it was for the Hispanic boy to move the other. Blue’s fingers only had to barely touch Bart’s shoulder to send him walking in the other direction.

“Nice try hermano,” he only shrugged an amused look upon his face as he said so. Bart shot him a goofy look before dramatically ‘fainting,’ at Five’s feet. Someone needed attention.

Needless to say, Five equally as dramatically fanned the joking speedster’s face, “You slay him Blue!” she giggled nudging Bart’s side with her foot only to let out a shriek of excitement when his devilishly fast fingers wrapped around her ankle as if he was going to pull her to the ground next to him.

“Hey! We have a match to win, you two!” Blue huffed hands now on hips as he watched Five playfully kick at Bart.

“Oh fine,” Five sighed sadly as if downtrodden Bart finally letting go of her ankle. Promptly stepping over the younger hero Five hopped (quite literally) after Blue. Stopping as they neared the center of the field Five handed the other boy the ball, resting her hands on her left hip waiting for his trade secrets with her trademark short attention span.

“#1, zapatos, your shoes- take them off. Can’t play football in flip flops.” Blue instructed bending over to place the ball in front of the two while he spoke. Five’s cheeks flashed red as she couldn’t help but notice how well his light blue athletic shorts framed his um, well… She had the sudden urge to bite her nails, luckily he was up before it could escalade to such things.

“Five?” Blue asked raising a brow as he found her staring oddly intently at a passing cloud.

“Yes? Oh! Yeah, shoes right,” her voice almost cracking as it changed key without warning.

Bending down herself, she quickly removed the borrowed flip flops tossing them without thought off the field, and then regretted her impulsiveness; Babs probably wouldn’t like her shoes being manhandled. What was with her today? Blue was her friend-in-training, the physical response she was having was totally inappropriate.

“Are you okay?” Blue asked crinkling his nose yet again. Five could only blink for a moment as her mouth fell open then closed, with lack of intelligent things to say. She couldn’t very well tell him what had distracted her, now could she?

“Just worried,” she offered stretching her back awkwardly.

“Well, don’t be Chica, I’m sure you’ll do good,” he laughed patting Five’s back in support. She had the urge to correct his grammar but didn’t.

“Thanks,” she smiled curtly.

“No problem, Now secret #2, Robin is weak on his left, if he comes at you make it so he can’t get his right foot in and you’ll be fine,” he stated moving across from the nervous clone. “First try and kick it to me, there’s a big difference between knowing the rules and knowing how to play,” he smiled giving Five a thumbs up for encouragement.

They spent the next few minutes practicing, it took work, but wasn't hopeless. Five was generally athletic, and the rules were overly simplistic: only use your feet, keep in bounds, no powers.

Powers or not Five quickly found out milliseconds after the game started how seriously out of her league she was as the very fast ball sliced inches away from her face: Cassie had won the kickoff. It was almost scary how well Robin and Cassie worked as a team. Their passes always perfectly timed without as much as a nod from the other. Even though there was an apparent competition and even fight between Cassie and Bart their overwhelming friendship was easily shining through as the speedster was able to predict 88% of the time exactly where Cassie was going to send the ball into his goal. It was strange for the clone to watch as everyone worked together, how each person knew what the other would do. This must have been the result of all their hours of teamwork, for her own movements were clouded with doubt. Even though Blue assured her she was being helpful, she found it awkward to work with the others. At first she was only able to rarely snatch the ball away from Robin; never Cassie.

Five could only wipe sweat off her forehead with the back of a hand as she stood humped over panting, sweaty palms slick against her equally perspiring thighs. 10 minutes in and she was already slowing down. Her eyes following Cassie's determined face and Blue's easy smile from the other side of the field. Cassie was trying to steal it away from him as he neared Static's goal. He didn't appear to need her help, or at least he hadn't asked.

"Let them wear each other out," Robin huffed breathing heavily next to her.

"I guard you, you guard me?" the clone grinned mischievously towards the batkid.

"Totally," he agreed the red in his face fading as they "guarded" each other. As Robin and Five saw it the other two were in a power struggle which anyone else would just get in the way of. Their movements completely different, Blue was quick whereas Cassie was extremely competitive in everything she attempted from Call of Duty to any form of athletics. She had unmatched determination and energy, relying on will more than skill on the other hand Blue was nothing but technique. It was obvious he had grown up playing the post and although he couldn't match Cassie's (borderline cheating) powerful kicks, his body did not seem at all affected by the blazing heat as he outmaneuvered her.

"So, who usually wins?" Five asked as Static successfully blocked Blue's attempt sending the ball soaring across the ground with a kick of his own. She started off at a light jog after the racing two as they tore past the chatting slackers.

"Blue Beetle but if you tell her that- i'll deny it." Robin teased adjusting his sunglasses without thought.

"Obviously," she chuckled, her smile stretching ear-to-ear,"So much better than a pod! Come on Lazy Shoes!" She teased back before breaking out into a full force run after Blue and Cassie.

Five made it in time for Bart to toss the ball in her direction another failed goal try having come to pass. This was going to be a long game at this rate.

If Five didn't know how determined the Wonder Girl was to win she would have suspected her powerful kicks, aimed for the goal with no mercy, to in fact be purposely hitting the now bruised speedster. More likely though, Bart was just collateral damage, it also didn't help that his idea of goalkeeping was throwing himself in front of each ball instead of trying to catch them as Static did.

The girl only shook her head as she luckily managed to dodge Robin (thanks to Secret #2) and pass it off to Blue for another successful goal. It went on like this for another half an hour before the end was even in sight.

The air was oven warm; sweat dripped off of all of them. The results of the game had tipped sharply out of the other team's favor as the football game stretched on and the goalies tired. Robin was barely keeping up at this point and Static was sweating bullets, the ball more often than not slipping out of his grasp. The team only still staying afloat because of Cassie's sure determination.

Like Five, Blue seemed to bask in the growing heat. The longer things carried out the better the clone performed, her actions less awkward as she gained much needed practice. The rays of sunlight energizing her like a car hooked up to a battery. She had literally never felt better, confidence worked its way into her strides as she kept pace alongside Blue. They were winning by two goals, the score although close with a 14-to-12 goals in her team's favor had almost reached the game ending 15 point mark. which was a good thing Five thought as she kicked the ball back to Blue, eyes drifting to an exhausted Bart.

His blocks had started to become sloppy 10 minutes before, right around the time he'd started grumbling about a snack break. He was no longer performing victory dances after each goal; this really said something to Five.

Turning her head back around Five's eyes flickered towards Blue as the ball came her way right on time. Dribbling in short paced kicks Five kept her eyes on the spot Blue would enter readying herself to pass she lifted her foot, the Clone's steps faltering as he came back into view.

Sunlight shined on his now exposed caramel skin as in one gloriously done moment his hand gathered up the fabric of his gray sweatshirt pulling it off he casually threw it in a rolled ball of fabric off the field. His white undershirt stuck to every muscle.

At the same time Five felt her foot hit the slick ball too high, the bottom of it slicing over the round surface sending her flying backwards. The air soaring from her lungs as Five's back hit the ground embarrassingly hard.

Grass caressed her exposed legs and arms in a sense of urgency as if trying to figure out what was wrong, when the only thing permanently damaged was her sense of self respect. She tried to will away the blazing blush with a deep set frown. It didn't work.

A laughing Blue blocked out the sun as he came into view. She fully understood why he wore that sweatshirt now; those arms! Seriously?! Those were assets to be used against villains not supposed friends in training. Okay they weren't nearly as big as Conner or even Aqualad's (who both seemed quite proud to display them more than they really needed to) but still... Come on!

Suppressing laughter Blue bent down next to the girl who was pretending to be quite otherwise occupied. "Hi," he offered pulling from their previous conversation.

"Hi," she rolled her eyes before her face melted into a smile.

"So I'm going to take that smile as a validation of your health and help you up now Chica," he finally chuckled softly before reaching out one of his rather amazing arms. Grasping his hand tightly Five allowed Blue to pull her to her feet, just as Cassie scored from an unprotected goal. Bart was too busy rolling around in the grass pointing and laughing. Five didn't find it that funny.

"Get it together ese and throw us the ball," Blue yelled leaving Five in the dust as he sped off after the ball. Five somehow managed to beat him to it, she may not be a speedster but the brunette clone was fast when she put her mind to it.

"Mine! Mine! Yo Dude!" She laughed jumping up and down clapping as she signaled to the other boy to throw it her way. A cheeky grin entered Five's lips as the speedster ignored Blue's own comments and tossed it her way; sticking out her tongue she sped off, now leaving her teammate in the dust.

"Problem He-r-man-o?" She jested blowing her bangs from her eyes as she sped down the field avoiding an exhausted Robin. She'd finally gotten the hang of things as she reached Cassie, the Wonder Girl was not so easy to get past. So unfortunately Five was not able to make the winning goal on her own as Cassie raced towards her left Five was forced to set Blue up for the last kick, which hit nothing but net as Static ate ground hard his coordination off as the ball sliced past the air next to his right shoulder.

"YES! YES! YES! We Won! This is so lucky," The girl giggled aloud as she jumped in place.

"Crash, Crash, Crash, Crash, Crash! This is so crash Bart!" trying out the young time travelers futuristic words and liking them upon her lips Five ran to do a badly choreographed victory dance with her friend.