Chapter 1: Fight, fight, fight!
And I'm back. Dear God I am a fool. You know what? I'm done. That's right, done. HOLIDAY COMPLETE! Back to the mundane day-to-day. How much time off does a demented Mexican really need?
Enjoy this rewrite.
Damian.
School. A place of learning, agreeable fun times, homework, growth, bullies, and amusing failed attempts of flirting. Mainly for the guys, that is. Surprisingly enough, whether or not someone is rich or middle-classed, everyone treated everyone else in the same, obnoxious way. It made most parents relieved that their kid won't be singled out as much as they feared, and relieved teachers since they don't have to break up as many fights. But fights do happen, usually under the effect of, "Let's see who the top dog is!" Guy stuff. Or, male stuff. Whatever, the point is that fights happen, no matter how people look at each other, or what the teachers say. Which is exactly why a cliche circle of students around a one-on-one fight is happening in the middle of the hallway right after lunch. It should be expected. Damian Wayne. Trained killer, trained crime fighter, son of a rich man, defiant as any teenager, and always willing to resolve matters with his fists instead of his words. Dick, his adopted older brother never like the idea, but Jason, one of the other Robins, actually liked that. Although he and Damian were not on good terms. No, Jason is still a little raw about the whole, 'Dying then coming back to see nothing changed,' which really didn't concern Damian, but he backed up his father on the no killing rue after a few months, earning Jason's anger.
But, as the shouts of the watching students get louder, back to the matter at hand. A senior, some jock guy, had chosen Damian to be the he was going to shove that day. Only for Damian to to grab his wrist and punch him in the stomach. Usually that was enough, but the guy was a really big jock. With big muscles, and even bigger ego. He wasn't just gonna let someone half his size get the better of him. Which is why they were fighting. Well, the jock was, Damian was toying with him; just avoiding all his strikes and simply taunting him with words or his smug smirk. Damian couldn't help with the smirk. He could easily beat him, but it was fun seeing the egocentric bully turn red with rage and embarrassment. Damian didn't know his name, and to be frank, if he wasn't such a bully who didn't discriminate, Damian would most likely never had heard of him. Most just said, 'That jock' when referring to him.
The jock threw a punch aimed for Damian's face, and the boy ducked and kicked the jock's leg, making him fall to one knee. He growled angrily, getting up and tried to grab Damian, only to get punched in the stomach. Not too hard. "Are you already tired?" Damian taunted. "I'm not even sweating." He got up and tried to throw a punch only for it to get caught.
By an old man. "I don't think the rules condone such things." The man sighed and with a simple push, the jock stumbled and landed on his ass. He scratched his graying beard and adjusted his glasses, trying to get a good look at the jock. "This really shouldn't be happening. I'm sure you all are late to class."
Some students swore and ran, looking scared. Sometimes detentions are scary. It was well known. "He started it." The jock pointed at Damian.
The old man looked at Damian then back at the jock at that accusation. "Sure. And I'm sure he also started the fire in the gym two weeks ago as well. Save your lies, boy." He sighed loudly. "I'm not interested."
A girl stepped from the crowed. "Excuse me." The man turned and hummed deeply. "I'm one of the students helping with the anti-bullying-"
"Yeah, yeah." He sighed when she took a step back, taking his tone as a sign of anger. "I'll take Mr. No brain over there to the office. You do... What ever the hell you do."
she nodded and grabbed Damian by the arm and pulled him away. He got one look back and saw the old man pull the jock to his feet, with one single pull from his arm. "Who was that?"
The girl, Sarah, shrugged. "Some tutor that is replacing Mr. Ford after he got in that car wreck." She and Damian met on the first day of that year after both being subjected to a prank. Neither wanted to ever talk about it, even though Damian turned the prank on the pranksters. It was a touchy subject.
"He seems weird." She couldn't help but to agree. Neither had his class, so they only could go off the rumors about the man taking over the History class. "He also seems a bit strong, for an old guy."
"How is that?" She asked as she let go to open the door to the room where her club, the anti-bullying club, had their meetings. It was a spare room that wasn't used anymore.
Damian stepped inside and sat down at a desk. "He pulled up that guy with one arm, and a single pull." He made a face as he thought about what he saw. "No. It was a tug."
Sarah sat down at the desk next to him. "Some people like to get into shape when they get older." She didn't like the idea of skipping class, but she knew Damian would be brought to the office, so she wanted to stay and back him up when he tried to get out of trouble. She knew it was the jock's fault and that he started it, but usually pointing and saying, 'He shoved me first' wasn't going to work with anyone.
"That's not just getting in shape."
"Maybe he's staying in shape?" She shrugged. "Could be veteran."
Damian hadn't thought of that. He seemed like he was tired at the sight of two fighting, one of them wanting to kill the other. "Maybe. He seemed like he wanted to stop the fight while also ensuring it couldn't start again."
"He did step between you two after he pushed him to the ground."
This made him sit up. "You saw?" She nodded. "The entire fight?" Another nod. "Why didn't you try to stop it?"
She smiled. "I knew you'd be fine. I just didn't expect you to toy with him. I thought you would get it over with quickly."
"I didn't think a teacher would notice."
"Really? A large groups shouting and cheering, taking bets in the middle of the hallway, and you thought no one would notice?" She chuckled, making him smile a bit. "You are something else, you know that?"
He smirked. "So, I don't have anything planned for later." She rolled her eyes. "Want to go somewhere to get something to eat? My treat."
"Yeah, no. You are way too small for my taste."
"I'm only a few inches shorter than your last boyfriend."
She grinned at him, a light blush on her cheeks. "I wasn't talking about height."
He heated up a bit. Dirty talk was not common, be it between a guy and a girl, guy and a guy, or girl and girl. Sarah was an odd one. But so was Damian. "Oh yeah? Want to see how wrong you are?"
"While it may be interesting, I believe you have a date with the principle." They both turned to see someone they never expected to see on school grounds. A person with scars over his face and tattoos covering his arms. He was wearing a simple black t-shirt and black jeans and shoes. He looked bored. "Come. I don't want to be here any longer than necessary." He turned and walked off.
The two teens followed, taking note of his earrings that stood out against his overall dark clothing. They were gold, no doubt real, if Damian knew anything. He also had a few rings on his fingers along with a pair of shades. "He's strange."
"And good at hearing." He said, not looking back.
Once at the office, Damian and Sarah saw the old man talking to the principle. The teen that led them there took a seat in a chair near the corner of the room. "Old man. Stop wasting time."
Said old man sighed. "I agree, but we can't rush. Okay?" The teen didn't respond. "Now, as I was saying, the jock is clearly is the cause of the disruption, but Damian is not blameless."
"I didn't do anything." Damian's mouth was covered by Sarah, who chuckled.
"What he means is that although he knew there were better ways to resolve the situation, the jock didn't give him much choice."
"I have a name."
A shuffle of paper made the old man look to the side, but not anyone else until the teen started speaking. "Father is Bruce Wayne. Mother's name is unknown. Adoptive brothers are Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, deceased, and-"
"Thought I told you not to go through their files." The old man took his glasses off and tucked them away, rubbing his eyes, ignoring the principle's look of shock.
He ignored him. "Let's see. Over fifteen recorded fights. And by 'recorded,' I mean recorded by cameras around the school and students' phones." He turned a page and hummed. "There are nearly twenty reports of fights you were involved with by student eyewitnesses."
"You sound so professional." The old man sat down and sighed. "Can we just skip to today's fight? I'm tired."
He nodded and looked at a separate sheet of paper. "Hm. 'The jock,' name used by those bullied by student. Real name is Tom Sheldon. Mother is in hospital after nearly destroying her liver when she was out drinking with friends. Father works in a auto repair shop and is unable to get off of work until six pm, forcing Tom to get a ride from friends or walk home."
Tom froze. "How do you know all that?"
"Do you really want to know?" The teen glanced up, his gaze hidden behind the shades. "One learns a lot if they just take the time to stop and look around."
"You stalked me?" Tom looked disgusted.
The teen was unaffected by the look. He examined the paper more, mumbling something. "After all the problems you caused and number of reports stacking, it tends to draw the attention of many people. To answer your question, yes, I did stalk you so I can fill out my report. I was hired by the school board and plenty of parents to see that you no longer cause problems. Just FYI."
"That doesn't explain why you stalked him." Sarah spoke up.
He didn't look up. "Usually when bullies bully, they tend to have harsh and cruel, wait, those are basically the same thing, bad childhoods or life in general, so it makes them feel better now that there is someone worse off than them. So, using that as the basis of my reasoning, I decided to investigate his home life. Ff course I couldn't just go up and ask if his life sucked. He'd lie, without a doubt."
The old man made a face. "I only see some stress that's not vented. So to deal with the fact that his mother is recovering from a potentially fatal mistake, and his father coming off as neglectful, he turned his loneliness into anger and takes it out on those weaker than him." He looked at Tom, no doubt glaring. "Those that can't fight back."
Tom shuddered as the words, which were fairly logical and professional, were coated and a thick layer of venom. Yeah, the teen was not happy. "I recommend masturbation. It doesn't work for me, but it might help you."
The principle gasped. "Villanueva!"
He made a face. "What? You act as if he doesn't know what that means. I'm sure everyone in this room knows what it is."
Enocente rubbed his forehead. "This is why we can't keep clients." Villanueva tilted his head to the side.
"I see no problem with our attitude, behavior, or methods." The principle disagreed. "We agreed on ends only. I make the fights stop. The methods are mine to decide."
"That right there is the problem that costs us clients. You are way too logical and tend to cause more problems than most think possible."
Villanueva put the papers away into a folder and sighed softly. "It's not my fault everyone is so damn sensitive."
Enocente took the folder from him and handed it to the principle. "You are beyond hope, you know that?" He turned to the principle and smiled. "Sorry about him. He's grumpy because he got dumped."
The light above Enocente flickered violently before it went out with a loud bang. "If you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut." His words were calm and almost nice, but the feeling everyone got suggested something else.
Damian tensed. He felt that coldness before. Killer intent based around grief and self-loathing. He was starting to think of what the old man meant by 'dumped'. "Sarah, he's dangerous. Stay away from him."
The girl was shaking. "Y-you think?" She couldn't look way as Villanueva slowly clenched his fists.
Villanueva got up and walked out of the room, not giving them a glance. "Well, that was a thing." Enocente had no sign of fear on his face or in his eyes. He acted as if that happened often. "So, about the punishments?"
The principle nodded slowly. "Tom will receive two detentions and will not be able to play any of his games until his behavior improves." Tom didn't argue and left without looking at Damian. "Dick should be here, so at least I have time to think about what to do about Damian."
"Why him?"
She laced her fingers together. "His father tends to be very busy, so Dick acts as his guardian when he's not available." The old man nodded.
Everyone sat down, and the principle didn't say anything to Sarah, knowing she was there to defend Damian. Again. A bit later, Dick came into the office, looking more than a little mad. After the principle filled him in on what happened, Dick got angry, but didn't say anything to Damian. His gaze did fall on Villanueva as he returned to the room holding a file filled with papers. He sat down and started to shift through the papers silently. No one seemed bothered by the light bulb popping, but were instead fascinated with the teen with tattoos. He didn't seem to notice.
Dick was the one to break the silence. "So what happens now?"
"Your home life is to be investigated." Villanueva spoke calmly.
Dick looked at him. "Who are you?"
"Villanueva." They shook hands. "CPS." He finished.
"And you?" Dick asked, looking at the old man.
Damian stiffened. "I'm a former UN representative for Mexico, former Sargent In the US Army; special ops." He made a face. "Or was it special services?"
"That's not important. What's important is that we both were called out here to investigate Damian's... unique actions." Villanueva stared at them silently.
"We never met you." Dick said.
"That's because Bruce Wayne lawyer'd up. I told him and he assured me it was nothing to be concerned about, that Damian was simply acting out. I waited and sure enough, things settled down, so I assumed it had to do with Bruce not being around." Villanueva explained. "That he was looking for attention. That would mean there is nothing to do except inform Bruce of this and hope he can spend more time with him."
"But as you've noticed, we are here." Enocente sighed. "A kid, no matter if they are in wrestling, can take down five people twice his size, while fighting them all at once. It was obvious that something was up."
Villanueva gestured him to stop. "That aside, we came because we are going to preform a full investigation, in which case, you can not be allowed to attend school until we are done."
"Then what about my studies?" The boy eyed the teen wearily.
"Homeschooling." Damian and Dick both gasped. "Well, it will be a tutor that has a copy of all the work you are going to be doing for the rest of the year acting as all your teachers."
"Who will be the tutor?"
"I don't know." Enocente said. He got a look from Villanueva. "What? Me?" A nod. "Haha. Very funny." Stare. "You can't be serious." Stare. "You are serious, aren't you?" A nod.
"Unless you want him to fall behind."
"We'll take it. I just need to call Bruce."
The teen stood and shook his head. "There is no need. I already informed him."
Dick looked at him skeptically. "But you didn't know that we were going to accept homeschooling."
A laugh sounded in the room. "I know what Bruce Wayne is like, and from what I've heard, you value education just as much as him, Dick."
Damian glared at him. Why is he talking so causally? Villanueva glanced at him so he stopped glaring.
I hope this is a lot better than the few sentences of the original. Review and all that.
Should I even be doing this? That's not rhetorical.