It wasn't easy being Rachel Grayson. To the outside observer her life would have been almost perfect. She was the adoptive daughter of Bruce Wayne, heiress to his entire fortune. She was a pretty, popular, thirteen year old girl. Sure, Bruce could be a little overprotective at times and she did have to take sudden leaves from school due to his business trips but other than that her life looked pretty good, publically. Her private life was another story.
It wasn't easy being Robin, the Boy Wonder. Sure, to the outside observer his life looked like a dream come true. He was not only a sidekick, but Batman's sidekick. He was on his own superhero team, young justice. He got to fight crime alongside not only his friends but also the rest of the Justice League. He had friends, a best friend, and he worked with Batman. He lived a life most thirteen year old boys would kill for. Except he wasn't a boy.
Sometimes she was Rachel Grayson, a little orphan girl spoiled sweet by Bruce Wayne, and sometimes she was Robin the Boy Wonder, sidekick to the Dark Knight. Her secret identity was a necessity. Bad things could happen to kids who fought against not only conventional criminals but also the likes of, let's say…the Joker, among others. Even worse things could happen to little girls who did the same. She started being Robin when she was nine, an age where there were few physical difference between boys and girls. At thirteen not only physical differences, but also emotional differences, were becoming apparent.
Batman had always planned to retire Robin and replace him with Batgirl, the public none the wiser that they would be the same person. For security reasons Rachel was not in on this plan. So she carried on as Robin. She bound her breasts, deepened her voice, and kept her hair short when she was Robin. When she was Rachel she wore a shoulder length black wig, stuck to her hairline with the same substance that kept her mask in place. She covertly put on makeup in the girls bathroom before school and took it off afterwards. She gushed over cute guys and designer clothes. She wore almost exclusively dresses, complained endlessly about how unfair it was that she couldn't wear makeup, and in short was a very girly girl.
It was necessary, all necessary. That's what Bruce told her and that's what she told herself. She loved being Robin but also loved being Rachel. Sometimes it was nice living a double life. She could fight crime, be a hero, and still ace her math test and run the dance committee. Sometimes, however, it wasn't nice. She hated lying to her friends but she knew she had to do it. She also hates the fuzzy feelings that would come up sometimes.
She wasn't like Wally, he liked a different girl every week. When she liked someone she knew as Robin she locked those feelings deep away until they died of neglect like a forgotten Christmas puppy. It started when she was ten and she got those fuzzy feelings for Speedy. She still kind of had them but they were mostly dead. Wally was a different matter. She had those feelings for him sometimes, like when he'd grab her hand to go show her something or when they'd hang out playing videogames for hours and he'd be near her, but she was slowly letting those die as well. It wasn't easy.
She met him when she was nine. They were fast friends being so close in age. Roy was older then, fifteen, much too old to hang out with a couple of kids. She had gone to his house for sleepovers, holidays, and just hanging out. He had never been to her house, for obvious reasons. He was her best friend and she, his. That was the way it had to be.
