I'm still writing this story but I just wanted to post the first chapter to see if it's worth writing, so don't expect the chapters to be posted very often or soon. If you like it and I'll keep writing it.

-Eric

Monday – Age five – First day of Preschool

It was the first day of preschool for Bruce Wayne, he was excited to meet other children. He never really spent much time with other kids because he had no siblings and his parents never took him out of the mansion that much.

He saw the school in the distance and the mass of cars out the front dropping off other kids. To his surprise none of the other kids had a limo like he did and they all wore cheaper looking cloths then his. All the kids stared at the limo in amazement and even some of the adults, by the time Bruce step out of the car everyone in the area was staring straight at him. He timidly waved to the people and they all went back to their own business of saying farewell to their own children. The first kid Bruce met was a small girl who was slightly shorter then he was and he held a smug look on his face when the black hair girl looked up at him "Hi, I'm Selina, what's your name?"

"Bruce," He replied and she smiled up at him.

Over time Bruce met more of the kids in his class, he met a boy named Harvey who seemed to be one of the richer kids like him. Another red headed girl name Pamela introduced herself. She and Selina got along well and then they met yet another girl named Rachel. Other kids came to school as well but they never bothered to introduce themselves. They talked out in front of the school and gradually all the cars were gone and only the students stood outside waiting to go into school. Suddenly they heard a loud bang from the parking lot that was caused by an old car that had pulled into the drop off. The car was rusted and small with a broken window on the passenger side, it also released a foul smelling smoke as it parked.

All of the kids turned to stare but it was not in amazement like when Bruce had pulled up but fear and disgust, most of the kids found the car intimidating and scary. The door of the car finally opened and a skinny boy was shoved out, the boy stood up slammed the door causing some of the glass to fall off the window "Fuck you too!" he yelled and the children around him gasped. The car immediately speed out of the lot almost hitting the gate and the boy was left standing alone, fuming. Bruce noticed that the boy's clothes were even more dirty and cheap then the other kids and this boy didn't smile as he walked into the school like the other kids did. His hair was brown and dishevelled, he wore shoes that looked older then the boy himself, a shirt that only covered one shoulder and the boy had bruises all over his face, mostly around his eyes. He began to walk into the school when Bruce called out to him "Hi, I'm Bruce, what's your name?!"

The boy didn't even crack a smile as he turned and approached the small group "Jack," the boy responded grimly.

"Why is your face all bruised?" Selina spoke up.

Jack just grunted and walked into the school building "I don't like him, he should be more happy," Pamela whined. Just then the bell went and they all walked to class together with their brand new bags that looked way too big for the small children carrying them. When they got there they saw most of the children had found their seats and they saw Jack in the corner on a table all by himself with his feet resting on the chair across from him.

Jack glared at the group as they approached him and it caused them to sit down at their own table. He also tried to ward off another girl who came to the table but she pulled out the chair causing his feet to fall and sat across from him anyway "Hi, I'm Harleen," she greeted.

"Jack," he replied continuing to glare at her.

"Nice to meet you," she said smiling sweetly at him.

"Can you sit somewhere else?"

"Why?" she frowned.

"I don't like other kids," he stated simply and she slowly stood up and went to sit next to Pamela and Jack released the breath he had been holding and relaxed once more, enjoying his solitude.

The teacher came into the classroom and the amount of energy she had disgusted Jack, she was so damn happy and was treating them all like babies but the other kids in the class seemed to beam at her so Jack just ignored her energy and decided not to cause a scene in the first five minutes "My name is Miss Leland and I'll going to be your teacher this year," she said happily, duh Jack thought as he watched her with a blank expression "Are you excited to start school?"

All the kids with the acceptance of Jack said "Yes!" cheerfully and it made Jack want to be sick.

"Well let's go around the class so we can introduce ourselves!" she said "After we say our name we'll say what we want to be when we're older! Starting with this young man!"

"My names Harvey Dent and I want to be the president."

"That's a great! Let's keep going."

"My names Pamela and I want to be a scientist."

"My name is Harleen Francis Quinzel and I want to be a gymnast."

"My name is Bruce Wayne and I'm going to run Wayne industries or become a doctor."

The list went on and on and Jack lost interest and began to stare out the window near his table until suddenly he heard Miss Leland say "And what about you?"

He turned to see the whole class looking at him expectantly and pointed to himself and the teacher nodded "My names Jack."

"Jack what?"

"Just Jack."

"O…k and what do you want to be when you're older?"

"I want to be a comedian," Jack responded and the other kids laughed at him.

Miss Leland frowned "Oh uh why don't you think of something…better?"

"You asked me what I wanted to be…and now you're telling what not to be?" Jack retorted grumpily.

Miss Leland was quiet "Why don't we just move onto some mini games?" she said quickly tearing her stare away from the boy.

Later the kids were leaving the class after maths class to go to lunch but Miss Leland pulled Jack away from the other students and held up the maths quiz he had filled in during class "Why haven't you answered the questions on your sheet?" she asked.

"I didn't want to," he responded simply.

"All you've done is drawn on it," she stated and he nodded. She finally decided that this was getting nowhere and let him go to lunch but Jack only sat in front of the classroom waiting for the next class to start. Miss Leland frowned and walked out of the classroom to kneel in front of the boy "Don't you have any lunch?" she asked and Jack shook his head "Why not?" she pressed and Jack just shrugged. She sighed, she didn't want to bring it up but she was worried "Where did you get those bruises?"

"I fell down the stairs at home," he responded quietly.

"You got a black eye from falling down the stairs?" she asked sceptically, he nodded "Do your parents hurt you?"

"No, I love my parents," he stated but it lacked sincerity and emotion.

"Did your parents hit you?" she pressed and Jack shook his head before standing and slipping past her to walk away down the corridor with Miss Leland staring after him.

When he got to the playground outside he found the other kids playing chasey and Bruce ran up to him and shoved him in the chest but Jack barely moved "You're it!" he yelled running away but Jack just decided to sit down against the wall of the school "Come on, Jack!" the others encouraged but he ignored them.

"If Jack's not playing you're it!" Selina yelled to Bruce and they began playing again but Harleen decided to go over to see if he was ok.

"Don't Harley! You'll get boy cooties!" Pamela yelled but she continued towards him.

"Are you ok?" she asked sitting down next to him. All she got in returned was a grunt as he turned away from her "You don't like people that much do you?"

"No."

"Do you at least like you're mummy and daddy?"

"No."

"But everyone loves their mummy and daddy," she protested.

"You're wrong"

"Am not."

"Are so."

"Am not!"

"Are so."

"Am not!" she yelled increasing in volume and pitch each time.

"Harley you're it!" Harvey yelled tapping Harleen on the shoulder and ran off. Harleen glared at Jack before sprinting off after Harvey.

After school Bruce had soccer practice that his parents had signed him up for, after he went to the drop off and called his butler Alfred on his phone to come pick him up. After a few minutes of waiting he spotted Jack sitting at the other end of the drop off. He was the only other kid left. Bruce stood up and began to walk towards him but the old car from earlier parked in front of Jack before he got there. A man got out of the car and there was a woman sitting in the passenger seat. The man appeared to be swaying unsteadily as he walked towards his son "School ended two hours ago," Jack said grumpily.

Suddenly the man stuck him across the head causing him to fall to the floor "Just be grateful you get to go to school at all, you littl' runt!" the man scolded before pulling Jack off the ground by his t shirt and shoving him into the back of their car before driving away.

Bruce waited in silent horror until Alfred arrived in the limo and he continued to stay quiet all the way home and went straight to his room once they arrived. Alfred went to find Thomas Wayne to express his concerns about Bruce's behaviour "Master Thomas?" he called poking his head into the office.

"Yes Alfred?" Thomas asked looking up from his work.

"I'm slightly concerned about Master Bruce, sir."

"Why?" Thomas pressed putting down his work to focus more on the situation.

"He hasn't said a thing since I picked him up."

"I'll go talk to him," he said walking out the room to leave Alfred to tidy up his desk. Once he got to his sons room he saw him sitting at his desk doing a maths sheet on addition. He sat down on the bed and sighed "What's wrong Bruce, did you not have a good first day?"

"I did but…" Bruce trailed off as tears formed in his eyes.

"What happened?" Thomas asked lifting his son onto his lap as the tears began to fall.

"Daddy…today I saw a boy get hit by his daddy," he whimpered.

Thomas was silent "What was the boy's name?"

"Jack."

"What was his whole name?"

"I don't know."

"Ok," Thomas sighed "Why don't we go get some ice cream from down stairs?" Thomas offered and Bruce nodded taking his father's hand to be led downstairs and he completely forgot about what he saw happen to Jack.