The Mistress of Venom: Part 1

Chapter 3

He raced home. His mother would be so excited.

"Bruce told me I'll be going back to school! I am so psyched!" was all he managed before bouncing on his bed and running around the room pumping his fists in the air. This was a really big deal.

As he suspected, his parents were thrilled with this new opportunity. It seemed that Wayne Enterprises was paying for the rest of his education. His parents didn't have to pay anything. They were slightly disappointed, however, when they learned he was being placed in a class of his age level students, not his brain level. He would be a sophmore in a class of 100. It was an average sized school, Gotham High.

On Monday, Dick walked into the big brick building. He tried to ignore the black decorative fencing, as it reminded him of the prison bars he'd locked many villains behind. This was an institution of learning, not a holding cell. He would be all right.

Then the big double doors at the front of the building opened. Waves of students poured in as the bell rang. Dick was pushed along with the crowd. Compared to his bedroom and the private classes at Wayne Manor, this was a huge school.

Dick was completely bewildered. Was he supposed to go up those stairs or down that corridor? Maybe it was room 118. Nope. That was senior Trigonometry 101. Finally, he saw the secretary's office. Pushing open the door, he saw a petite caucasian woman sitting behind a large gray desk. She smiled at him and said, "Take a seat. I'll be with you shortly. I have a few things to attend to first." She gestured to a row of blue plastic chairs near a window that looked out into the hall, then went into a back room.

Dick turned and noticed, for the first time, that there were other people sitting in those chairs.

"Hi, I'm Barbara," said a pretty red haired girl. She stood up and shook his hand. She then pointed to the blond girl sitting next to her. "And this is Noelle." Unlike her friend, Noelle just sat sullenly in her chair and looked the other way. Barbara frowned. "I'm sorry this is very unlike her."

"It's all right," Dick replied. He had recognized her as the girl who had waved at her friend in the library yesterday. He didn't know why she would be mad at him but it wasn't something he wanted to bring up now. "I didn't expect to welcomed very much on my first day. Normally new kids, well, you hear stories...." He trailed off. Barbara was looking at him. Her blue-green eyes scanned him up and down. It was piercingly uncomfortable. But then she looked back at her friend. Phew! he thought. That was weird.

"Noelle," Barbara was saying. "What's the matter? You're usually so friendly."

Noelle just scrunched herself up more into the corner of her chair. Now that he was really paying attention, Dick noticed Noelle's face. It was very pale. Sweat sparkled on her forehead. He knelt down beside her. "Noelle, are you feeling alright? You don't look very good."

"That's not very nice." Her voice was wavering.

Barbara sat down next to her friend again. "If you're feeling sick we should tell the nurse." She put her hand on Noelle's shoulder.

"I'm fine. Go away." Noelle pushed her friend's hand off but it was a weak move and her words were muttered through clenched teeth.

Dick was worried. "I'm going to get the nurse," he told Barbara. "You stay here with her." Barbara nodded but he was already out the door. He returned a few seconds later. "Where is the nurse's office," he asked sheepishly.

Barbara smiled crookedly, which Dick somehow found endearing. "Down the hall, third door on the left." Dick stood there for a moment, distracted. Then Noelle groaned and was sick all over the floor. Barbara looked up at him, scared. "Hurry," she said. He could tell she was very nervous.

"Everything will be fine," he said, trying to sound convincing. Then he ran down the hall as fast as he could which was very fast considering his training.

As he swung through the door, the nurse looked up in surprise. "Girl sick," he panted. "Secretary's office. Noelle. Everywhere."

"Don't panic," the nurse replied. "I'll go try to see what's wrong with her. You grab some towels out of the supply cabinet and clean up the mess."

"Yes, ma'am," he said to her back as she hurried out of the room. Eventually he found the supply cabinet, though it took him a while. When he got back to the office, paramedics were wheeling Noelle away on a stretcher. Barbara was still sitting in her chair, stunned. As he wiped up the mess, he asked, "What happened?"

Barbara was obviously shaken but she tried to answer calmly. "After you left, she was sick some more. When the nurse came in, she saw the blood in it and called an ambulance. Then she took her temperature and wrapped her up in some jackets from the lost and found. They think she has that terrible disease-" She started to cry. Dick was finished and he hurriedly threw away the towels. Then he went to sit down next to her. "It's all right. She'll be fine. It was probably just some 24 hour bug." But Barbara wasn't listening.

"They say once you can see the blood, there's no hope." She wouldn't listen to anything he said to try calming her down, so he just put his arm around her and let her cry on his shoulder. Apparently, because of all the excitement, the secretary and the nurse had forgotten about them. When Barbara had stopped crying and was just hiccuping, she wiped her eyes on her sleeve and said, "Well. That happened. Hey, I'm sorry I got your shirt all wet. I don't even know your name."

"I'm Dick. Dick Grayson."

"Barbara Gordon, though my friends call me Barb. Thanks. For, well, you know..." she trailed off.

"It's all right. That's what I do. But I still don't know how to get to my classes."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I completely forgot you're new here. I'll just take you to mine." She smiled up at him.

"Thanks. That'd be great. But I'm getting kinda hungry."

"Well that's no surprise. Your next class is lunch."

The two friends talked and laughed the whole way to the cafeteria. They even sat together, oblivious to the suspicious, prying eyes.