The Girl of the Wild {DC Comics/Part 1 The Wildflower Series}

Ch. 19 Body Language and the English Language

I was lying outstretched on the couch in the Young Justice unit of the Watchtower watching old Disney movies. Sir Justin was on a mission that day as Shining Knight, and had assigned me to catch up on my pop culture, so he'd given me a bunch of movies to watch. Many of the movies I was able to relate to. Aladdin reminded me of the life I had in the city, and Tarzan reminded me of what happened to my childhood, which made me wonder if my parents really did love me. Did they really die in the vision I dreamed about? The last movie I watched was Lion King, and the characters in the film reminded me of my family in Zimbabwe. Simba's mother reminded me of Dindingwe and Mufasa reminded me of Leon. I was enjoying the movie, until Mufasa died and I began to cry. I couldn't imagine what would happen if Leon was gone, so I turned off the DVD player and focused on other assignments.

Currently, I was curled up on the couch in the den of Young Justice reading up on English grammar and noticed someone walk behind the couch. I looked up from my book and saw Nightwing standing in-front of me. "What're you working on?" he asked as he inclined his head towards my papers. I told him about my recent assignments while Shining Knight was away and how confused I was with the English language. "Okay, there's this one thing about my lessons with Shining Knight. If something like disabled is the opposite of abled... Is tressed the opposite of distressed... or aster the opposite of disaster?" Nightwing chuckled and a smile graced my lips. I thought it was a serious question, but I took no offense to his laugh. By now I had become accustomed to people laughing. It was a very human thing to do.

"And people are overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Why is no one just whelmed? The English language is so... difficult," I growled. Nightwing smiled and plopped himself next to me on the couch. His arms were draped across the side and his feet were resting comfortably on the table. I wasn't about to tell him that it was bad manners. Personally, I didn't mind, but Sir Justin had informed me in adequate last week and said it was. I turned my head back to my textbook and began reading again. Nightwing leaned over and made me nervous as he looked at my notes. "Nice writing," he commented. I smiled and thanked him politely, my voice coming out timidly. It wasn't as nice as Sir Justin's was, but it was getting there and Sir Justin said that everyone's handwriting was different. It was silent again as Nightwing leaned back into the couch.

A few more minutes passed and I let my eyes wander towards Nightwing who was looking down at his hands in thought. He looked up at me and my eyes met his masked ones. I turned my eyes swiftly back to my book, but didn't read. Oh how I wondered what color his eyes really were. Nightwing was still looking at me when I cleared my throat. "How old are you?" I asked, still looking down at my book. "What?" he asked and I looked up to see his shocked face. I gave a small laugh. I suppose that would be a strange question to ask out of the blue, so I explained.

"Shining Knight has been teaching me about the stages of human life and its span. I was merely wondering the age you might be. I'm sorry if it came out as impolite."

Nightwing smiled at me before shaking his head. "I'm twenty-two," he said. "How old are you?" He asked innocently, but there was a trace in his voice that I could not understand. It sounded like he was interested, and that confused me.

"I don't know how old I am, but based on what I've learned and the length of my memory, I would say that I'm around your age. Or perhaps I'm a little bit older." Nightwing gave me a queer look. It probably sounded strange to him that I didn't know how old I was, so I decided not to tell him that I didn't know when my birthday was either. I wish I knew, but since I didn't, I tried not to dwell on it.

There was another pregnant pause between us, and it was driving me crazy. Snapping my heavy textbook closed angrily, I looked towards him. I was about to suggest doing something else instead of just sitting here, only for Nightwing to talk right over me.