"Barry, are you sure you want to go? You still have to take the test to fix your school grade, you don't have to spend your time in the school yet, just stay home and rest..." Nora hugged Barry and shook him as she kissed his head.
"Mom..." Barry tried to free himself but his mother's arms were locking him too tightly.
It has been a month ever since he came back, and he had yet to go back to school, he didn't saw Iris, nor James, nor anyone else yet, his speed was only being used to study and some other activities.
"Eh? Barry, have you been working out?" His mother backed away slightly as she looked at him from head to feet.
"Yes, I felt like training ever since I woke up."
"Barry... do you really want to go?"
"I do."
She sighed and let go of him. "Be careful, alright?"
Barry nodded and left with a smile, he looked at his clock, and seeing there were only five minutes left, he smirked.
In the past he was slow, he tried but never get where he wanted but the Barry of today had a great tool he could use as much as he wanted, one that allowed him to simply live better.
The world slowed down, the cars seemed like they had gone down from 30/40 km/h to just 5. And he ran, he ran so fast it left afterimages behind, this feeling coursing through his veins filled him with adrenaline, his eyes would open wide, a lightning trail was left behind, and nothing in the whole world seemed capable of outrunning him.
1st, 2nd, 3rd, one by one he crossed the streets in the blink of an eye, going so fast no one even noticed.
Unfortunately, Barry never thought of the consequences of going so fast, in his excitement, he didn't even notice the flames on his shoes when he stopped in front of the school gate.
"Oh my god, he is on fire!" A girl shouted as she pointed at him.
"What!?" Anxious, he looked down and started to hit the ground and the shoes to try and stop the fire, after a few seconds he solved the problem and sighed.
Seeing the plastic that melted from his shoes, he slapped his face thinking of the mistake he had just made, at least he could still use it.
Barry has been kind of an airhead these days, he couldn't just come back to his life as it previously was, he had decided to check up on Iris and James but that was it, although she was her first good friend in all his time after being reincarnated, and him his second, he was too far from them in a sense that he couldn't explain, it just didn't feel right, especially so with what he would do in the future.
Inside he couldn't help but take a good look at that familiar sight, girls and boys filled the corridors with lockers on the left and right, there were many new faces now as an entire year had passed, but mostly they were all sort of familiar somehow.
"Hoho! If it isn't the good old, Barry, small and thin as always. I bet if I punch you now I can even break a bone or two, wanna bet on that?" Tony held on to Barry's shoulder, the new kids around and the older ones all backed away when they saw he was about to make someone's life worse today, for them, that was already a common occurrence, and he was already the bully of the school for many of them, even though Central City Police School had one more layer that was usually forgotten due to how flashy this guy was in his actions.
"So, Barry I- Ugh!" Before he could finish his words, Barry punched him in the guts and tricked him into falling on the ground by putting his foot behind his leg and pulling back. "Damn you, Allen! Now you made me mad!"
Before he could stand up though Barry kneeled on his belly and punched his nose so hard Tony almost blacked out.
"Listen here mate, the Barry you knew is just distant memory now..." Those words were meant for every single one around, he wanted them to know that there was a new guy to look up to around, but the remaining ones he whispered for him. "If you wanna fuck up with me, you gotta be prepared to spend a few weeks in hospital, but if you aren't a pussy you'll meet me during the break." He gave him two friendly slaps on the face with a two-way smile, one that meant 'we are even' and another that said, 'you better do what I said.'
Tony panted heavily as he stood up with wide eyes and fled through the corridor without even looking back, the blood dripping from his nose making it clear to where he went.
Barry smiled and licked his lips. "Haha... how refreshing!" He missed this feeling, how much time has it been since he last put a moron in his place like that, he could still remember his time on the gang when he taught those bullies of his school hard lessons almost every day.
"What the fuck!" One of the kids blinked his eyes and tried to clean them to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Is that the same Allen we knew!?" Another one asked.
In the corner, hidden by shadows, a boy wearing a red hood raised an eyebrow seeing that, he wasn't sure of others opinions on him, but he was sure that there was something interesting to make out of this, he smiled and made sure to take a picture of Barry, he had to make some research first, and after that, he was interested to see what path he would take.
As Barry left the scene he was soon stopped by a very angry girl, the one he had wanted to see.
"Barry, what the hell was that! Since when did you changed roles and went from the good guy to just another bully!?"
Barry frowned hearing her words, Iris was naturally kind-hearted, even she suffered in the hands of this school bullies a few times and she not even once rattled them out, but for him, she was being weak, people like them don't deserve pity, they deserve punishment and only then a chance to do right, if they are in turn let off despite their actions, it will grow on them that nothing they do is unjustifiable, and that will eventually make them completely unresponsive to authority, and the end result was something he knew very well... death.
"A whole year and that's all you have to say to me after I literally defended myself against a prick that has been on my foot from the first day we met?"
Hearing Barry's cold and dark answer, Iris stepped back, she looked in his eyes and saw something in them she had never noticed before, it didn't felt like the same guy that had to run to get anywhere and would even then be late, his eyes were still as full of determination as ever, but now there was another layer to them, one that made the hair on her body stand on end.
"Barry... I... I'm sorry, It didn't occur to me to ask you about that after what I saw... I would have asked if you're alright now, but based on that I already know the answer." Iris bit her lips and turned away.
If he was the old Barry he would have tried to stop her, but this one knew much better than that. First, because his feelings for her had changed, and second because if there was one thing that Irene's death taught him is that whenever you're ready to take on the dark side of society, family and loved ones are things to get rid of, to cut personal ties is not something cruel, it's actually an act of kindness to spare them of the shit that came with it.
He couldn't bring Iris into this unless she was willing to be part of it, and that meant she would eventually have to deal with things that most people should never even think of.
The alarm went off, making him frown, still, he calmly walked towards his old classroom, the same one he should have been at if he hadn't been taking a nap for a year.
Through the windows, he looked for a moment until he found James, he was sitting on his desk as always, surrounded by cheerful friends, he wanted to go inside to give him something, but the door was locked.
Sitting on the teacher's chair was Mrs. Won, it felt like destiny that she was the one here instead of one of the other five teachers, Barry laughed and shook his head, should he do it or not?
"Eh!? I'm already this late? Crap..."
Without noticing a girl approached him and tried to open the door as well.
"Huh? Who are you?" Barry looked at the girl and frowned slightly, how come he didn't hear her, even if it had been years, his experience of being a gangster was still fresh in his mind, it should have been a piece of cake to notice her.
"Me? C'mon, don't tell me that just because you got leave permission for a year, you already forgot your classmates, just because you had a crush on that girl you never noticed the ones in our classes?" She laughed and looked at him with her beautiful crystal eyes, the whole time they were having this conversation, she had been touching her blonde hair and giving a slightly suggestive gaze.
"You are... Lisa... aren't you?" Barry had to flex his memory quite a bit to remember her, she wasn't what he would call a shy girl, but she never made any effort to interact with anyone in the class, in fact, most people, even him, thought of her as a snob girl who thought too highly of herself to even look at the 'peasants.'
And how couldn't they, she was pretty much the most beautiful girl in the school, her looks had never matched her age, and Barry still remembered people asking around if she was a repentant that should have been in the twelfth grade because she already had the looks of an 18 years old girl at that time.
Lisa licked her lips and smiled, she jumped on him and hugged him tightly as she said. "Hehe! So you actually remember me!"
"Eh!? What the hell are you doing!?" Barry pushed her off him and gasped as he saw how she was giving him an innocent look as if she wasn't aware of what she just did.
"I've decided!"
"On what?"
Lisa smiled, poor Barry wasn't even aware of the mistake he did by showing such an imposing and commanding aura after teaching Tony Woodward a lesson, she wasn't the common kind of girl one would expect to find out in a school, if anything she was the closest thing he had of his previous life.
"I'll follow you from now on, no matter what you decide to do, I'll support your decision."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Barry shouted but she shrugged and took his hands off her shoulders.
"You will understand." She was about to walk past him, but stopped for a moment and gave him a peck on the cheeks before whispering in his ear. "See you later sweetie."
"Aagh?" Barry stood there frozen, what the hell did just happen? Was he... was he molested by a random girl!? "Could it be that the people in this school are actually way more insane than I remembered!?"
Barry massaged his head and left towards the principal's office.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, the same boy with a red hood was watching from afar.
"Tsk, this dumbhead is kinda like him, why are they so lucky with girls? Especially the evil ones..."