Clothed in our grief

Chapter four

"No mom, it's last period right now. I'm standing outside of the classroom so I can talk to you without disrupting the class. I just wanted to make sure you were picking me up after school for the meeting." You said, leaning against the classroom door." Messenger bag already on your desk, to let the teacher know that you were there. Not absent, or  anything like that.

"Are you walking home today? I can't drive anywhere right now, I'm an awful lot busy with paperwork for the baby. Do you want to be picked up though? I can ask-"

"No mom, it's fine. Thanks for offering to have dad come and get me." You cut her off, smiling into your words as you referred to your mother's husband as your dad. It took a while, but slowly you're starting to call him dad more than you call him by his name. You could tell by the way her voice sounded more warm afterwards that it meant something to her too.

"Well, I just want you to know that you start up fencing in a week, and once you get home there a surprise waiting for you on your bed. I've been keeping this under wraps for a long time, I nearly spoiled the secret myself a few times." She paused, letting out a light chuckle. "You're okay with walking home? I read some articles about Gotham after coming here, I probably should have read them before hand. I guess I was more focused on you getting into an academy than the place we'd be living in." She replied to you, while you pressed your back to the door and stuffed a hand in your pocket. Raising an eyebrow, though you knew she couldn't see it.

"Just don't take any shortcuts, stay on main roads, and don't go through Crime Alley. If you think somebody is following you, go to the nearest police station. There's several of them sprawled out through gotham for this reason. I bet you can even ask a police officer to make sure you get home safely?" She said, as if she'd been holding that in for a while.

"Why would I go through a place called Crime Alley? I mean, that kinda speaks for itself." You replied, there was a light scoff in your voice that you quickly regretted the moment your mother raised her tone with you.

"I just want you to be careful, okay?"
"Okay."

And with that said, you ended the call and entered the classroom again.

When you entered the class, the teacher stopped writing on the whiteboard with her red marker and gave you a pleasant smile. Then proceeding to grab a white packet, handing it over to you. Drugs. Yeah, this is health class. And the first unit is Drug and Alcohol abuse.

"Thanks." You spoke, turning back to the classroom and sitting in your seat. Next to you was a girl with short brown hair and a yellow butterfly clip in her hair. She had a splash of freckles over her cheeks and large doll like brown eyes. One thing you thought that might be a dress code violation would probably be the bright yellow converse she wore, but apparently not?

The instant you sat down, she turned to look at you and smiled, extending her hand and urging you to shake it, so you slowly copied her actions.

"Maps Mizoguchi, look's like we're partners for the semester. What's your name?" She asked, nothing but a friendly tone to her voice and an excited chitter. She seemed really nice, and she was probably the smallest girl in the entire class. Sitting across the room from the window, her olive skin seemed to just soak up every little bit of sun to make her look more radiant and excited.

"(Y/n) (L/n), it's nice to meet you. So what are we doing right now?" You asked, leaning down and going through your messenger bag that still sat on your oak wooden desk. Everything about this school was high end, top of the line. You rummaged past your clothes that you'd change into after school, and pulled out a mechanical pencil.

"We're supposed to be talking to our partner to get to know them, also getting out our textbook. Which I don't have, can I share yours?" She asked, holding out her hands and arms onto the table and leaning over her desk, looking at you and smiling. With a short sigh, you nodded and pulled out the health textbook with the number '49' written on the spine of it.

"So how'd you get here? Scholarship, rich parents, rich grandparents? Oh, rich aunt or uncle?" Maps asked you, taking out a bright neon pink pen and circling a page number on the packet before taking the textbook and flipping it open to the page.

"Scholarship-"
"You too?! Dude, my friend Olive is here on a scholarship also. So far you two are the only people I've met at the academy on scholarships. But I know there's crud-loads of students on scholarships here!" She exclaimed, but she didn't yell. Only to open her mouth back up and ask another question. She was really talkative, reminding you of maria. There wasn't a single dark thing about her, either. She just seemed so...colorful?

"What're you here on a scholarship for? Is it choreography? I'm the only person in the choreography club so far, you should totally join it." She said, sticking out her tongue as she focused on reading the first description of the vocab words you all needed to focus on.

"Fencing, you're the only person in your club? I don't think I'll join, but I hope it goes well for you." You replied to her, a light smile on your features as the two of you just continued on talking throughout the period. Learning that she had an older brother that went here named Kyle, and that she had a friend Pomeline. but she just went by Pom. she was actually someone who you had in another one of your classes, you had Pom in your physics class. She wasn't someone you paid attention to, but after hearing Maps explain about her? You couldn't help but cringe just a little bit. Actually wanting to be a demonologist? At fifteen years old? It's kinda cringe worthy. You bet she doesn't even understand what that means, but you're not exactly one to judge. One thing you had to say though, she knew how to put on eyeliner and not get called out on it.

She also told you how old the school was, all the rumors that surrounded it. About how it use to be haunted, and still might. You only rolled your eyes, but she kept trying to tell you it was true. Sure, the school is creepy. Stairs creaked, elevators would suddenly stop, lights would go out, despite the school having top of the notch everything. sometimes students would go missing in the middle of the night and walk around the school with no memory of it. Which reminded you that the school also had a dorm, for the students that actually lived here. Some students had the option of going back home, while to others? This was just a boarding school. More so, students would stay here.

Eventually, there was about ten minutes until class was over, yet there was a student who left early after a phone call to the teacher from the main office saying he was excused. who was this guy? The same guy you've been seeing all day.

"Who is that?" You mumbled, leaning over to the side of the desk that Maps sat at so you could ask quietly, watching as the boy left the classroom after one last glance at the whiteboard.

"What? you mean you don't know? Dude, that's Damian Wayne."