Catch Me If I Fall || R.Grayson ||

I Dub Thee My New Best Friend:

A/N: I love how you can tell exactly when an author gets bored and the writing just degrades for a second there. Literally the entire last stretch of the chapter lol why can't I am I like this? 

Barbara had missed the first week of school running a fever. It wasn't exactly how she had envisioned starting third grade, but the attention she received from her mother while at home was certainly more than she could remember getting all at one time. Unfortunately, though, she had a decent immune system, and recovered quickly enough. Now she sat at her desk at Gotham Elementary, dressed in last year's uniform that consisted of a grey skirt and hastily tied tie over her white blouse with the school's emblem on the collar.

Gotham Elementary was the usual prerequisite for Gotham Academy, the best junior high/high school in the entire city. Her mother had high standards, and seemed only eager for the best.

'That's it, I guess,' Babs sighed internally, looking around the dull classroom. Last year the teachers tried to engage with the class of seven year olds by taping colourful posters and decorations to the wall, and it looked as though they had given up completely since it had no apparent effect. But it was still the beginning of the school year, so Barbara hardly paid it any mind.

Like every day last year and the year before, she was fifteen minutes early, and the only kid in the classroom; and if this year was anything like the last, the other kids would be out in the schoolyard until the teachers called them in when the bell rang. She didn't mine that at all. She tended to like the small talks with the teachers as they prepared for the day.

Today, however, proved to Barbara that this year might actually be different. No later than five minutes after she took her assigned seat before class, a small boy joined her shortly, taking the seat directly across the isle from her. She frowned, wondering what made a kid want to sit inside all morning when they could be playing instead. Aside from her, that is. She liked to think that made her more mature than the other kids her age.

The teacher, Mrs.Meyers looked up at the boy's arrival, and offered a friendly smile. "Good morning, Richard. Not playing with the others?"

The boy, Richard, shook his head, though he returned the smile with a simple one of his own. He had black hair. So black, Barbara wondered if the colour would smudge like charcoal. He must have felt her staring, because he looked over at her with a set of startlingly blue eyes. He smiled again, softer, and more uncertain. Babs raised an eyebrow, and turned away with a silent huff. So this kid came in early, sat inside, and sat right beside her.

'Probably thinks he's better than me,' She thought stiffly, folding her arms on her desk. 'Hah,' Her gaze was drawn back to Richard, who was facing away from her, chin pressed into the palms of his hands as he gazed lazily out the window. A feeling of horror washed through Barbara's stomach. 'What if he is better than me?'

And the thought haunted her all day. It followed her through the front gates, and all the way to the car as her mother asked how her day had gone. She was speechless! What was she supposed to say? That she met the one person who seemed worthy of her rivalry? How would her dad take that news? She was eight years old, much too young to have an arch nemesis!  

The more she stewed over that thought, the more it aggravated her. There was no way she was letting that charcoal hair punk be better than her. She supposed she would have to talk to him to gauge if he was really that much of a threat.

So the next day, when she took her seat at the usual time, she counted down the minutes in her head until Richard came in, head down, and quiet as he hung his backpack on the hooks by the door. Seven minutes. Yesterday he had come in five minutes after her. So clearly he wasn't as consistent as she thought he would be. Barbara herself was very consistent when it came to arriving on time. Both her parents had tight schedules to meet, and there was little time to dawdle in her household.