Friend or Foe?

Chapter 2

Damian heads to his first class, extremely pissed and a little heartbroken. Damian doesn't even bother to pay attention, which is pretty normal for him, because he already knows everything they attempt to teach him. Since the teacher is used to this, she doesn't mind.

He spends all of the first period staring out the window, trying to get Riley's words out of his head. No wonder your mother left you. Replays over and over again in Damian's head. Even if Riley was mad at him, Damian never expected him to go that far.

First period ends. Damian grabs his stuff and leaves. He goes to his locker to grab his stuff for his next class. Just then, Travis and two of his friends walk over to him. "Having a bad day?" Travis mocks. Damian glares at him and begins to walk away. "Did you enjoy the picture Riley showed you?" Travis says looking at his nails in an egoistic way. Damian stops and his fists clench up.

"What did you just say?" Damian says, not turning around. He fears that if he actually looks at Travis, he may break another bone. "It was kind of me, wasn't it? To have him give you a picture of your real friends. You must miss them." Travis says a bit sarcastic and a bit mockingly. Damian clenches his fist even more, his nails beginning to dig into his skin.

People begin to stop and watch them, whispering just quiet enough that Damian can't hear what they're saying. Damian stays silent and still doesn't turn around. He's too focused on trying to keep himself calm. "Tell me... does your family realize that they're living with a terrorist? Or do you have them fooled?" Travis says, leaning against Damian's locker. Damian takes in a long, shaky breath of anger, and releases it slowly. He begins to walk away again.

"You know they'd never love you if they knew the real you. I mean... are they even your real family? You don't even look like any of them." Travis says coldly, and cockily. Damian suddenly snaps when Travis brings up his family. He whips around and rushes over to Travis, grabbing his collar and pulling him down. His fist is brought up as if he's going to punch Travis. We don't put our hands on the civilians. He suddenly recalls his father's words. He lowers his fist and shoves Travis to the ground. "You're not worth it." Damian says before walking off to his second class.

The rest of the day is pretty quiet. Damian avoids Travis and Riley as much as possible, which isn't hard considering he doesn't have any classes with either of them. At the end of the day, he goes to his locker and finds another note. He sighs, picking it up. He knows the note isn't worth his time, but he opens it up anyway. "Hey freak, your bag looks heavy, it must be all the bombs you keep in there." The note reads. No name is signed.

He wasn't exactly popular, but he wasn't normally harassed so much in just a day. All of this because of one incident? Damian thinks to himself. Travis really does have this entire school wrapped around his finger. Damian sighs. He finishes packing his things up and tosses the note in the garbage as he exits.

As he expects, he finds Alfred already there, waiting for him. He walks over and respectfully steps into the car, closing the door behind him as he does so. "Good afternoon, Pennyworth." Damian says quietly and he buckles himself in. "Good afternoon, master Damian." Alfred says back with his normal respectful tone.

As they leave the parking lot, Damian puts his earbuds in and begins to read. Damian has a decent amount of work to catch up on, but he's not worried. The work has always been more boring and tedious than difficult.

They arrive home and step out of the vehicle. Alfred opens the door for the both of them and Damian thanks him as always. Damian heads up to his room to get some work down. It doesn't take him long before he's finished. He packs everything back into his bag. He decides to read until dinner.

After about an hour of reading, he gets a knock on his door. "Yes?" He says, closing his book. "Dinner's ready." He hears his older brother, Tim, say back. Tim happens to be at the manor, working on a mission. Damian puts his book away and gets up. He heads downstairs for dinner.