Fawkes

Keep Your Friends Close and Complete Strangers Closer

Upon exiting the class I walked straight into a body, the owner of which grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side roughly.

"How were your first classes?"

Artemis and I began walking down the congested hallways as I explained to her the events of my morning.

"Oh, stay away from Lauren." Artemis shook her head, hatred evident in her eyes, "She's just trying to be friendly so she can figure out your secrets and use them against you."

I was familiar with blackmail, so there was no doubt I would be cautious around all these foolish lugs. I wasn't going to open myself up to anyone, let alone some strawberry haired green eyed brat that had it in for the newbies.

"Noted," I muttered as we climbed a staircase and ascended onto the fifth floor, or the '500 hallway,' where we had English Honours together.

"Sandy's nice enough though, but she and Dana are . . . complicated."

I wanted to ask why, but decided I hardly cared and instead changed the subject.

"So what's the deal with Grayson?"

She looked awkward, "I'm not exactly sure why he hates you so much. He's not normally like that. Maybe he's just . . . Going through something?"

I sighed. I didn't care what the boy thought, I just wanted to understand why he decided to hate me before I even met him. I didn't like not knowing things.

"Doesn't matter, he seems like a twit anyways." I followed her into the classroom, where the desks were set up in twos all facing a huge white board. A few seats were occupied, but most were available, as not everyone had arrived yet.

I was having mixed feelings about school, but I wasn't about to judge it based off of the two classes I had. My stomach was still full of butterflies. I had never seen another kid before, only vigilantes and heroes and villains.

These people were so . . . normal.

Artemis and I took a pair of desks on the left side of the class, and I was thankful that I at least had the blonde, because I didn't have the energy to make friends with the fools around me.

Once the rest of the students entered, chatter was filling the room. I couldn't catch what everyone was saying, because too many people were talking at the same time.

"So uh . . . Did you get an education when you were . . ."

"Living with the Joker?" I interrupted her, "You can say it you know. You're not gonna get attacked."

"Right." She cleared her throat awkwardly and I smiled to myself, "So how did that work exactly?"

"It was a lot different from this place," I explained, and I didn't know if the disgust in my voice was for this messy school or my old method of education. "He knew almost every criminal in Gotham, so he'd pay the ones who were geniuses to come 'teach' me. By teaching it was either me teaching myself while they sat somewhere getting drunk, or them yelling in my ear and assuming that I would learn that way."

"Well . . . You seem pretty smart, what with all these Honours classes you're in." Artemis shrugged, and I was happy she wasn't judging me.

"Yeah, well . . . the Joker only thought it necessary for me to learn the things that would be useful for crime." I pulled out some stuff from my backpack that I assumed I would need for this class, "Like loads of math, science, and languages. Hacking was extremely important, and I became reliable for it. I liked it the most so I pushed myself to understand every bit of it."