Shattered (Black Cat Chronicles, Book Two)

16. Student Struggles

The next few days were a whirlwind. I missed school the day after we found Harley, the Sirens figuring that she needed our support at the moment. I was still behind on a lot of my assignments, not even mentioning the fact that finals were coming up. After we dealt with Joker as well as we could for now, Shiva and Cheshire decided it was time for them to take their leave. "As much fun as it's been, and you guys are nice and all, but there's way too much shit going on here for us," Cheshire put it when they were leaving. "Good luck with everything, though."

"I can't speak for Cheshire, but I'll give you guys a call when I get back in town," Shiva said, hugging each of us slightly awkwardly. We'd only known each other for a few weeks, but hunting down a psychotic clown and almost being killed together works wonders for friendships. With Shiva and Cheshire gone, the base seemed a bit quieter. Harley kind of retreated into herself, and Ivy started looking after Harley to make sure she would be alright. Selina and I spent less time at the base, especially since I kind of needed to integrate myself back into society. Turns out going undercover in Arkham and then not really being able to recover before having to deal with Joker really did a number on a person's psyche.

Once everything calmed down as much as things could in Gotham, I found myself surrounded by homework in the living room, my leg propped up on some pillows. With how much of a mess my desk normally was without the added mess of textbooks and worksheets, I had to move my entire workstation. I was working on the chemistry final study guide, trying to will myself to actually understand some part of it and halfway to calling Dick to see if he could help me out, when Selina walked in. "You're still doing work?" Selina asked, walking into the living room and sitting on the sofa.

"The American education system won't stop until every student is dead," I said without looking up. "And it really didn't help with how much time I took off for all of this stuff, so I'm really dying here. It's cool, though. I'm gonna skip school the day before break starts since it's a minimum day anyways."

"You really don't think you've missed enough school already?" Selina asked, a brow raised.

"I mean, it's not like we're gonna do anything anyways. We're literally going to be in school for like four hours," I tried convincing her. The look she gave me let me know that I definitely wasn't allowed to skip school if she had anything to do with it. I groaned, figuring there was no reason to waste my energy trying to reason with her. "Alright, point taken, I'll go to school. So, what's next?"

"What do you mean, what's next?" Selina asked.

"Like, do we have any plans for the Sirens or anything? We've been quiet for a while now," I said.

"You still have school work you need to catch up on, and that's not even mentioning the fact that you have a broken leg," Selina told me, rolling her eyes. "You really don't know how to settle down for a bit, huh?"

"Nope, being out with this injury is making me really antsy," I replied honestly. "I've been thinking about some tech that might help with the healing, but I dunno if I'm actually gonna go through with that. I only have what? Another month on this leg?" I paused, thinking about that for a second. Did I really want to deal with this hell for another month or so? "You know what, yeah, I'm gonna start looking into some tech."

"Alright, kid, if that's what you want to do. Just make sure you pass your finals first," Selina said, standing up.

"Can't promise that," I muttered as she walked down the hall back to her room. I knew if she heard me she'd probably smack me upside the head. When Selina first agreed to letting me in on this life, there was the condition that everything else in my normal life - school and the like - would take priority over donning the mask. The past few months really threw that out the window, especially since I missed so much school in order to do things for the Sirens. I didn't really see the big deal here, especially since it wasn't like I was completely failing out of school. Maybe my social life was faltering a little bit, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with.