Characters (main): Billy Batson, Dick Grayson
Pairing: None I don't think
Warnings: Language?
Author's Note: Billy is fourteen in this fic. I want to stress that because I feel like someone will leave a comment telling me that I got Billy's age wrong. I know he isn't fourteen! Okay. Now that, that had been said I really hope you all enjoy.
Summary: Billy Batson did not belong at Gotham Academy for he was not insanely intelligent or have an extremely rich family. So, when a letter came in the mail explaining how he had been selected for a scholarship program, he was confused. AUish
.oOo.
Billy Batson did not belong at Gotham Academy for he was not insanely intelligent or have an extremely rich family. So, when a letter came in the mail explaining how he had been selected for a scholarship program, he was confused.
Compared to everyone else in his classes, he stood out like a sore thumb. It didn't take any one of them a lot of guessing to realize he was not from around here, if Gotham at all. They were stuck up, eager to express how much money they had, what their parents have invested in, what sort of exotic land their family would be taking a trip to next week. Billy noted how they spoke so much louder than they really had to about this, making sure everyone around could hear.
Many of them hardly paid any attention to him, giving him no more of a glance if that at all. Billy was alright with that, however, he didn't want to start anything. Especially not on his first day.
Uncle Dudley had expressed to Billy a week prior to leaving for Gotham that he would have to stay in the dorms that Gotham Academy offered. He couldn't afford moving the both of them to such an expensive city like Gotham. Billy wanted to tell his uncle no, that he would rather stay in Faucet and go to the school he went to now, but Dudley was so proud.
"If only your parents could see you now," he had told Billy.
Would his parents care? Billy wondered. His parents hadn't been the type to care all that much about academics, always telling Billy that school, while important, wasn't the only way. They were convinced that no matter how he did it, Billy would find himself where he wanted to be in life eventually.
Gotham Academy, Billy decided, was not that place.
"How about you, Mister Batson, Did you get four as well?" The teacher asked loudly, snapping Billy out of his thoughts.
"Uh, um, y, yeah," Billy answered, slightly distraught for he had been, as currently was, lost as to what he was talking about. Billy sunk further into his seat at the light chuckles from his classmates and eye rolling from others.
It was going to be a very long first day.
.oOo.
"He's from the scholarship program."
"Isn't Bruce Wayne sponsoring that?"
"Yeah, he is. This is the first year, if it goes well; the school said they'd make it a permanent program."
"Wow, he must be really smart then."
"No way, I saw his Geometry homework, he totally isn't smart. Like, at all."
"I don't know how that makes me feel. My parents pay good money to go here and he's getting it free? He isn't even smart, either. Why can't I go here free, hm?"
"Maybe his family is a friend of Bruce Wayne?"
"You're kidding, right? Look at him, not even Gotham's trash would be his friend."
Billy hoped, looking at his cafeteria meal (that looked like something a nice restaurant would sell), that by the end of the day the chatter amongst his arrogant peers would subside. He found comfort in believing that they must have just been bored and Billy, coming in at the end of the first semester, was the perfect way to spice up the school year that had grown boring.
He wasn't use to sitting alone and most definitely did not like it. At his old school in Faucet City, Billy had lots of friends who looked over the fact that Billy had come from the more poor parts of the city. They were genuine people, unlike the people who went here who wore a fake personality as thick as Gotham's pollution.
Billy listened as more kids joined the others behind him and their conversation changed from him onto other things that rich kids talked about. Billy had stopped listening, not being interested.
While Billy did miss Faucet, he had to admit that the dorm room he had received was extremely impressive. He had, had his own space back when he lived with his uncle, but it was nowhere are nice as here. He had his own bathroom that connected with the room, his own closet with uniforms, a desk equipped with its own laptop and printer.
The one thing that stood out the most is that he did not have to share it with anyone. The room was completely and entirely his own where he could, to a point, decorate it as he pleased. While he had only been in there for a few nights, we already longed for it as a quiet place away from the rest.
.oOo.
By the last period of the day, Billy had earned quite a name for himself for simply doing nothing at all. A few murmurs had turned into a rumor or two, something Billy didn't want to think about. There was already a pit in his stomach from something what was stronger than sadness but not quite sorrow. He knew that the words the others had said about him would only make him feel worse.
Billy honestly did not belong in Gotham Academy. The pretentious school was very much new water for him and for the other students; he was fresh meat ready to be torn apart. Lucky for Billy, tomorrow he would be going to Mt. Justice to see the Team.
They always made him feel better, even if they didn't know it.
.oOo.
Question, comments, concerns? Should I continue or…?