Disclaimer: I own nothing but Adrienne, Julia, and anyone that doesn't belong in the Batman universe.

Full Summary:

Adrienne Hellifort was just like any other rich man's daughter in Gotham: loved to party, flirt, throw money away on fashion, and most important of all: gossip. But when Bruce Wayne comes into her life, everything gets turned a little upside down. Now she's finally realizing that there is more to the world than vanity and selfishness.

Chapter 1: The Model and the Bottle

It was big, it was grand, and it had way too many stairs to get to it.

The tone in my father's voice as he spoke to one of his business partners, whom we had conveniently arrived at the same time as, was drawing me into a state of monotonous thought, and the only way to escape from it was to create a strong mood.

Such as annoyance.

Why in the world would somebody have so many damn stairs leading up to their house? Didn't they realize that poor, pitiful women such as Mrs. Doherty (the lucky business partner's wife) wear out so easily?

Now of course I'm not near as faint as her. But then again, I plan on going out with my friends and having a real party after this is over. I can't do that as easily if my feet are completely calloused from walking up a stairway as high as Mount Everest!

By the time we get to the top, Mrs. Doherty needs to stop and catch her breath. Me? I'm slightly, ever so slightly, winded and merely roll my eyes at the holdup. I could be inside getting a head start on my drinking!

Finally, after two or three grueling minutes, Mrs. Doherty finally smiles and says she's ready to enter, and enter we did.

I was excited, though I wouldn't admit it. The thing is, we were going to a party at Wayne Manor, home of Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy. A HOT playboy I might add.

But this wasn't any regular party. It was the first party in his mansion since it had been rebuilt. The idiot had gotten himself drunk and burnt the entire thing to the ground after nearly making himself an outcast by calling every single one of us freeloaders. Bastard.

But of course, being Bruce Wayne the prince of Gotham, he had been forgiven after giving another lavish party shortly afterwards.

This had all taken place a little over a year ago. And now here we were, in his completely rebuilt home, just as grand as it used to be.

And I mean, just as grand. You would think that a man who was the complete opposite of his father would rebuild his home in a completely different way. But no, everything seemed to be the exact same as it used to be. Of course there were new furnishings and decorations around the place, but the walls and everything were the exact same.

Such a disappointment.

I begin to wonder what this room would look like without all the fancy decorations laying around. Oh well, it's not like I'll ever get to see it.

I heard my name called out from behind me, and I turned around to see my friend smiling and waving at me from a corner of the room.

I smiled and headed straight for her, not even stopping to say goodbye to my father. He was too engrossed in business talk.

Once I reached her, we both kissed each other on the cheek. Julia had been my best friend for practically my entire life. We met each other in first grade in the private school that all of the wealthy of Gotham sent their children to.

I had been sitting at my desk working on my project when I looked up and saw this boy about to put glue in her backpack. I quickly got up and went over to stop him, instead putting the glue in his hair. I was put in the corner for the rest of the day, but it was worth it.

In the end, we all got something out of it. Julia and I now had a best friend, and the little boy came back to school with a new haircut.

"So is this party as completely boring as it's bound to be?" I asked her.

"You know it. The only thing interesting that has happened so far is Mr. Getty getting caught kissing his secretary," she said with an almost conniving smile.

I gave a wry smile back. "Well it's about time that his wife knew. I think all of Gotham knew but that one."

We walked over to the food table and starting picking out things to eat.

"It's still sad for his wife," Julia stated.

"Oh please Julia, the woman had it coming. She's the one who slept with her ski instructor on her vacation to the Alps."

Julia sighed. "I suppose so."

Once we were done picking, we turned around to again look at the crowd. "I don't know why anyone tells their secrets to people. Everyone knows their just going to turn around and say it to the next person they see. I doubt any of the people in this room have a secret," I said.

"I bet our host does," Julia said conspiratorially.

I turned to look where Julia was staring and saw Bruce Wayne strutting into the room with Vivienne Brekker, one of Gotham's best models, and also an acquaintance of mine, hanging off his arm.

"Bruce Wayne?" I asked with a scoff of disbelief. "Like the billionaire playboy has anything to hide."

I thought I heard a noise behind me, but passed it off as a cough.

Just then a nice looking old man came in front of us with a tray of wine glasses, strangely enough, he had a laughing smile on his face. We each took a glass, and then I watched him walk off, wondering why he had that look on his face.

After about twenty minutes of standing around talking to Julia, refilling our wine glasses multiple times (I said I was here to get started on my drinking, was I not?), and watching others, she finally got whisked away to dance by a man she has long since had a crush on.

I was getting really restless with those two. Even though Julia and I don't agree as much as we used to, and don't get along as much, I still wanted all the happiness in the world for her, and I really thought James Harper could give that to her.

If only the two would give in to desires and tell each other how they feel.

After Julia was gone I was thoroughly bored, and decided to go talk to Vivienne. Currently she was not with her date and our host, but was talking to Angela Walker, a bitch of a woman if you ask me.

I went ahead was walked up to them and said hi.

Both turned around smiling, and returned the gesture, though completely falsely on Angela's part.

"How have you been Adrienne?" Vivienne asked. You could tell she herself was a bit false, but no one could top Angela. Watch, Angela will end up being the most popular woman of our generation in Gotham, and be the leader of our group. Oh joy, I was sooooo looking forward to my future at this moment.

I smiled and said, "Oh, I've been wonderful, how about you both?"

"Fine," said Vivienne.

"Oh, I've been fine too, but if you'll excuse me, I have to go say hi to Susan," Angela said, then left. Thank God.

I put a gossiping smile on my face and said, "So Vivienne, showing up with Bruce Wayne." I lifted my eyebrows in slight, fake shock. She didn't seem to notice.

She smiled largely and put on her gossiping voice as well. "I know! I met him at a show the other day and he asked if I would come with him tonight. Isn't that wonderful!" she squealed, but not loud enough for anyone to hear her.

"That's great!" I lowered my voice and got closer, getting a look of secrets and naughtiness on my face. "So tell me, have you seen upstairs?" I lifted my eyebrows so she would know what I was asking about.

She made a face and said, "It hasn't really gotten that far yet, but I'm hoping for a little something later on," she added with a smile.

I gave her a secretive smile back.

"There you are," I heard a soft voice say behind me. Vivienne's face lit up and I turned around, only to come face-to-face with my host.

"Bruce!" Vivienne nearly squealed as she ran to his side. He smiled at her then turned to look at me.

"Who's your friend?" he asked.

She put a hand out in my direction and said, "This is Adrienne Hellifort; she's a good friend of mine."

Well I wouldn't exactly say we were good friends, we just tended to party within the same circles.

I held out my hand and he shook it, saying, "Bruce Wayne. Is your father Isaac Hellifort?"

"The one and only."

He nodded. "I believe Wayne Enterprises is about to do some business with your father."

"Oh," I said politely in a tone that showed I wasn't really interested in my father's work.

He seemed to catch on and dropped the subject.

Vivienne turned to him and put both hands on his chest and scooted more close to him. I nearly rolled my eyes.

"Bruce, sweetie, excuse me for a second, I need to go freshen up." He smiled to her and she bounded off to God-knows-where.

He then turned back to me. "So Miss Hellifort, you have no interest in your father's company?"

I shrugged. "I've never really been the business type."

"So what's going to happen to the company when your father dies? Hopefully not in the near future," he added for what I assumed to be my benefit.

"I'll probably end up just like you: retain ownership but hand it off to a good CEO who knows and cares about what he's doing."

He nodded. "Fair enough."

There were a couple of awkward beats in which neither of us could think of something to say then finally I figured something out.

"You house looks nice."

"Thank you," he nodded. "I wanted to make sure it looked just like it used to. This house has been in my family for generations."

I nearly rolled my eyes. He was seriously trying to pull that soft hearted, "keep the family traditions alive" bull to me? Yeah right.

My final answer? A nod with a soft smile.

I looked at my watch. "It was nice talking to you Mister Wayne, but as it turns out, it's time for me to leave."

He raised his eyebrows. "So early?"

"Not to demean your hosting skills or anything. It's just that I have two engagements for tonight, yours included, and I'm trying to make an appearance at both."

He leaned in toward me. "Would this other engagement have anything to do with drinking with your friends?"

I looked at him in slight shock. I had tried to pull that off like I was going to something prestigious. How had he known?

Oh well. "As a matter of fact, yes."

He leaned back again and smiled. "Well have fun anyway." He then walked away, laughing lightly.

I stood there in shock, then shook my head and left the room.