Until their death, I'd always attended the prestigious private school, West Gotham Elementary. Nearly everyone there was as stuck up their own behind as anyone could be, and there was little any of them had to say that encouraged me to talk to them. Most lunchbreaks would consist of sitting outside the main building, discussing the new high tech gadgets someone's parents bought for someone else, or how much money a certain person's parent had made that week. It bored me senseless. My parents had never been the sort of people who paraded their luxuries and money in other people's faces, in fact, all they had ever been was generous. To be honest, I was relieved when I was told I'd be leaving that place.



6 months after the death of my parents, I was moved into a state school. The 6 months prior I'd spent at home, feeling as empty as my house now was, with only me and my family butler, Alfred, now living inside the house. My only friend at that time had been Rachel, who's mother occasionally worked on the grounds as a gardener. It had been Rachel who'd swayed me to move to East Gotham Elementary, a public school smack bang in the center of the city. Everyone who wasn't rich enough to attend West Gotham Elementary, ended up there. The unfortunate kids from The Narrows, the inner city kids, everyone was piled into this place.

My first day hadn't started off too well.

"Hey, look! It's Bruce Wayne!"

I heard the jeering call of one of the older kids as I pushed through the crowds.

"How did you get to school today, Wayne? Your Mommy and Daddy drive you?"

"Shut up, Billy, you idiot!" I heard Rachel snap at one of them, as she pushed past the swarms of children.

"Just ignore them, Bruce, they do this sort of thing to everyone." She said, shoving against the sides of the crowd.

"They taunt people for having dead family members?" I muttured.

"No...No, Bruce, I mean- the taunts in general. Everyone gets them when they're new."
"Oh." I muttured.

We finally made it to the classroom Rachel had been raking her way towards. The room was already nearly full, minus the teacher, who obviously hadn't arrived yet. I looked around the room. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes sat near the front of the room. He smiled at me, for a moment I thought it might just be a jeering snarl, but as Rachel waved at him, I realised he was probably one of the friendlier ones.

"Hey Harvey." Rachel said, putting her bag down besides his chair. "This is Bruce. Bruce, this is Harvey."

"Hello." I muttured, not really wanting to speak to him, but giving a pleasant wave anyway.

"Hey Bruce, do you wanna sit next to Rachel?" Harvey asked, realising there was no free desk beside her.

"I can move if you want." He said, although the last part sounded slightly awkward, as his eyes glanced to the back of the room. I turned round to see what he was looking at.

A boy sat at the back, a somewhat demented gaze across his face, like Harvey, he too had blue eyes and blonde hair, except, unlike Harvey, he was incredibly unkept. I guessed he was one of The Narrows kids, his blonde locks was tangled and matted, I could see the dark circles formed under his dull eyes even at this distance. He began to grin when he saw Harvey, revealing his teeth, as undesirable as they were, wonky and stained a sort of yellow colour.

"What you looking at, Dent? You want a smack in the mouth or something?" He smirked.

Harvey didn't seem phased.

"I'd smack you back harder, Napier!"

"Do you want to see if that's true, pretty boy?" The boy snapped, pushing his desk away from him, and standing up.

Harvey shook his head.

"You win Jack." He said, mockingly.

The other boy didn't seem to notice the mocking tone.

"Damn right I do!" He snapped back, and sat down in his desk.

I turned round.

"Jack Napier. He's a total jerk." Harvey muttured. "His dad's a total boozehound. Beats him and his mom up all the time. You can see the bruises on his-"

"Harvey! Stop it. Bruce doesn't need to know." Rachel intervened.

"Fine." Harvey sighed, sitting back in the desk.

Rachel looked around the room.

"There's an empty desk over there, Bruce. " She motioned towards a desk in the middle of the room, next to a pale, skinny boy with dark hair, who seemed to be so hunched over the work on his desk, he wasn't even aware he was in the classroom.
I shrugged, and walked over to the desk, putting my stuff down on the floor.

I looked across to the boy sitting next to me. He was drawing something, but I couldn't work out what.
It looked like some sort of monster, but it was incredibly detailed, not the sort of thing you'd see in a child's cartoon.
You could tell he'd really put thought into making this thing look terrifying. It sent a shiver up my spine a bit as I looked at it.

"Pretty creepy drawing." I said.
He looked up, he seemed incredibly shocked I'd noticed him.

"What?" He said, quietly.
His tone seemed so hostile it sent a shiver through my spine.

"Uh, your um...your picture. Scary." I said again.

"That was the intention." He muttured, turning away from me quickly and continuing to draw the outlines of the creature.
I looked at the name on his textbook: Jonathan Crane.The door flew open, and in walked a short, balding man, in about his late-40s, early-50s. The teacher I assumed.

This was how my first day began. I had no idea of the events which would begin to unfold.