Thanks to those of you who gave actual constructive criticism on my last chapter instead of just ragging on my choice of relationship in this fic. I've definitely taken a few suggestions into consideration, like not giving everything away in the summary and keeping to canon characterization as best as possible.

I don't own Young Justice or any of its characters or DC Comics and their characters. I only own my character, Rachel. Any resemblance my character makes to anyone, real or not, is purely coincidental.

Rachel would remain in Sprang Hall for quite some time after that fateful encounter, but life for her or any of the other girls housed there certainly wasn't easy.

It was about as hard as the ceramic tile floors she would be shoved down onto in the bathrooms, and about as hard as the drywall she would be pinned against in the hallways, almost always by older, bigger girls. Granted, she wasn't the only one receiving this kind of torment, but certainly, fights and violent encounters weren't uncommon within the walls of Sprang Hall.

Being one of the youngest, smallest residents, there wasn't much Rachel could do to defend herself. She did however learn to look for the best ways to get out of another girl's hold on her. Being small certainly has some advantages, like being able to hide easily or slip through small spaces to escape.

Not all of the older girls were intent on being bullies, though. There were some, just a handful, that would shield younger girls from confrontations and help mend any cuts or bruises. Thankfully for everyone involved, fights never amounted in much more than that in terms of injury. They certainly saw Rachel a handful of times after she started to actually look for fights. She was 9 at the time.

"Why do you always try to get yourself into trouble?" she was asked once as a girl by the name of Melanie was patching up a few bite marks on Rachel's arm.

"I wanna study their technique," she said with a shrug. "I'm a rather quick learner, and I wanna learn to fight back."

"They have no technique. Just thrash and try to land a hit."

"Eh, some girls have patterns. A few of them clench their jaws right before they throw a punch. Some of them, you can see their muscles tense as they're about to move. Kelly knows she towers over some of the younger girls, but when she goes against girls her own size, she cracks her neck to try and look scarier. Hannah with the blond hair fakes a punch with her left hand, and when younger girls flinch and cover themselves, she uses her right arm to grab them around the neck. Julia with the red hair–"

"I get it. How do you manage to remember who does what in which fights?"

"It just sticks in my head, I can't help it."

"And you've managed to observe all this while girls like Olivia have their teeth an inch deep in your arms?"

"No, I hide and watch them." She winced as Melanie dabbed some rubbing alcohol on a cut.

"You watch them? That's creepy," Melanie chuckled.

"Not like that!" Rachel protested, prompting more laughs from the other girl. "I study the way they fight. I wanna learn how to fight back. And believe me, if I wasn't studying this kind of stuff, you'd be patching up a lot more than a few bite marks right now."

"Well thank you for making my job easier," Melanie said with a smile. She patched up the last cut and slid off the bed, placing a small kiss on Rachel's forehead before walking off.

Rachel watched the older girl walk away with a slight blush across her cheeks.

Studying paid off. The fights that Rachel involved herself in got shorter and shorter as she was able to remember how they attacked and dodge accordingly. But her streak couldn't last forever. Soon, whole groups of girls, all frustrated with not being able to land more than a few hits in their fights with Rachel, started to gang up on her to get their revenge.

She was sleeping off a particularly bad beating in Melanie's bed while the older girl kept watch when one of Melanie's friendlier roommates came running in. "Miss Agnes is looking for you two. She knows you weren't at dinner." The words "Miss Agnes" were enough to wake Rachel in time for Melanie to drag her to the laundry room and practically toss her into an empty laundry cart.

"Stay here until I come get you. It will be a while. Don't make a sound. Just…go back to sleep." Melanie tossed stacks of warm, freshly washed towels on top of Rachel's tired body. She tried to stay awake as she heard Melanie run off, turning off the lights as she went. The sound of clacking heels passed the darkened laundry room as the warm darkness surrounding Rachel permeated her mind and she fell asleep.