... I could not resist. At all.
I do not own anything. Except for the random 'Lindsy' girl. I needed some random girl, so I made her up. So I do own her. I don't own anything else, though.
There were not many things that could distract Tim on his way to class.
Seeing one of the girls that were part of the group of civilians he helped save from alien abduction in the hallway, however, was enough to make him right back towards his still-open locker. Pretending to be looking for a book, he listened to the girl's friend talk with her.
"How was your trip to Star City, Steph?"
The girl, known only as 'Steph', laughed slightly as her friend stopped at her locker only three away from Tim's own to get her stuff for the next class.
"It sort of sucked, Lindsy."
"How so?"
"I kid you not when I say that I, along with a bunch of other people, almost got kidnapped by aliens."
"Like those Reach guys that made contact?"
"You are not going to believe this, but they were the Reach!"
"You're making stuff up now, Steph. Those aliens are good!"
"Believe what you want, you weren't almost experimented on."
Tim was rather glad that not everyone blindly believed the Reach's lies. Even if they were the abductees.
"If you were 'kidnapped by the Reach', what are you doing here?"
"We were saved by superheroes, of course."
"What, like Batman and Superman?"
"Nah, none of them. There weren't many I recognized, but I saw Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl."
"Sure you did, Steph."
"I'm not lying!"
Lindsy stood up, her books in hand, and closed the locker. The two slowly started walking towards their classroom.
"So, was there anything good out of your trip?"
Tim was able to see a small smirk on 'Steph''s lips.
"Well, I noticed that Robin is kind of cute."
Despite only being kneeling, the surprise of hearing that from the girl caused Tim lose his balance for a moment, leaving him sprawled on the floor of the hallway.
Directly in the way of Lindsy and 'Steph'.
"Get out of our way, nerd," Lindsy growled out as Tim started to push himself up.
"Don't be a jerk, Linds!" her companion exclaimed, bending over to see if Tim was alright.
"He's a freak. He skipped a couple of grades, is a mathalete, and is just another Bruce Wayne charity case. The only reason he's even at the school is because the old man probably felt guilty after the last one died. Or he just thought not having a kid for too long would ruin his image."
While Tim tried to not let the last comment hurt him, and was failing rather badly, the girl bent down next to him popped up, her blond hair scattering with the swift movement and her blue eyes being filled with fire.
"Those are cruel things to say, Lindsy. Maybe you should just leave him alone."
Lindsy glanced at Tim in disgust, then looked full on at her friend, horror filled surprise evident on her features. Eventually, she just shook her head.
"I will never understand you, Stephanie Brown."
She then stepped around Tim, moving down the hallway towards her classroom. Rolling her eyes, Stephanie bent down to Tim's level again, a single hand outstretched.
"Want some help up?"
He grabbed the hand, allowing her to heft him up.
"The name's Stephanie. What's yours?
Looking at her fully, Tim found he couldn't speak. Somehow he hadn't noticed during the rescue mission just how... gorgeous the girl was. Her golden locks, bright blue eyes, the kind expression... all so perfect...
"You do have a name, right?"
Blinking hard, Tim managed to stammer out an answer.
"T-Tim. Tim Drake."
"Are you really Bruce Wayne's kid?"
Shuffling slightly, Tim responded.
"Yeah, I live with Bruce..."
"Don't listen to Lindsy. She's just jealous because Wayne Enterprises is bigger then her dad's company."
"I'm used to it, so I'm rather good at ignoring it..."
Stephanie frowned lightly.
"That's... not right."
"A lot of things aren't right in this world. One just has to accept that."
"I don't think we should have to... You want to hang out after school?"
"Wait... What?"
"I was going to go to the mall with Lindsy, but she's obviously not the best of friends. You seem a lot more interesting, anyway. Mathalete? I've always thought that sounded fun. You know the coffee shop across the street?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Want to meet there after after the last class to talk?"
"S-sure! That sounds awesome!"
She smiled as she started walking away.
"See you then, Tim!"
Then she was gone, and he could only stand there, wondering how he managed to have such good luck.
That is, until the bell rang.
Hopefully he wouldn't get a detention for being late or running in the hall, since he was going to be busy after school.