If Souls Return (Then Tell Them I Say Hi) - Tony Stark's Daughter in Gotham

Chapter 5: I Spy a Friend

Tim tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for Damian to come downstairs. He had agreed to drive the demon to school with Duke and was now regretting it.

Duke typed happily on his phone while Tim sipped out of the thermos full of coffee in his hand. It wasn't that they were going to be late per say, but Tim had wanted to be early.

"Hurry up Damian or we're leaving without you!" Tim shouted.

Typically, Damian was the most punctual of them all. The kid hated school though and voiced it often enough that Tim wouldn't be surprised if he was stalling.

"Damian!"

Feet pounded down the stairs and Tim knew Damian was doing it on purpose. If he wanted to, Damian could travel around the manor without making a sound. The kid had done it enough times, managing to scare the shit out of Tim.

"I'm here Drake. Must you yell?" The boy pouted, dressed in a uniform that was much too big for him.

"What are you wearing? Do you want to get dress coded?"

"Obviously not." Damian tried rolling up one of his sleeves, giving up as they unraveled seconds later. "Unfortunately, Father purchased my clothing this year without discussing with Pennyworth and bought a size too big."

"So why not wear the one from last year?" Duke asked opening the door.

"It is too small."

"Whatever, talk to Alfred after school or something. We need to go," Tim said dangling his keys to get the message across.

There were a few reasons why Tim wanted to be more than just on time. He had talked to Bruce after getting home from his entrance exam and asked if there was anything he could do to help Amber get accepted into Gotham Academy. Apparently, Barbara had requested something similar, so Bruce was already doing what he could to ensure that Amber would receive a full tuition scholarship from the Wayne foundation despite whatever her test scores were.

Tim maybe also worried that his peers were going to judge him for stepping into the CEO position of Wayne Enterprises. It might be nice to make friends with someone like Amber who was new to Gotham and didn't have the same prejudices as his classmates.

They dropped Damian off at the entrance for elementary students then Tim parked his car in the student lot.

"Are you looking for something?" Duke asked Tim as they walked inside.

Tim's head was on a swivel, searching for one dark-haired girl. "Remember the girl Amber, that Bruce almost hit with his car?"

"Yeah, Dick and Jason won't stop arguing whether she's a meta or not."

"Bruce was going to pull some strings to get her in here." Tim gripped the straps of his backpack a little tighter, his hopes dwindling. It wouldn't surprise him if Amber had chosen not to attend their school after all.

The pair stopped to put their bags away as they got to their lockers. They compared schedules, seeing that they had most classes together, both needing to replace some electives with classes they had missed due to nightly activities or in Tim's case board meetings.

In their first class, Tim picked a seat at the back where Duke was able to sit next to him. He confirmed that Amber wasn't among any of the students in the room before resigning himself to pulling out a notebook and beginning the day.

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Gotham Academy, like the rest of the city, had the same odd architecture. Amberly kept getting lost trying to get to her classes, accidentally bumping into students in the halls. It reminded her of her first day at Midtown.