I thought the bell that signaled the end of the school day would never ring. It certainly seemed like it wouldn't. But it did, and I raced out of Math class at full speed. I knew Alfred would already be there to pick me up, since he always had to be exactly on time to everything. It's kinda creepy how efficient he is sometimes.

Sure enough, as I pushed my way through the crowd of happily chatting students, I spotted Al right a way. He was first in the line of cars waiting to pick up their kids in Bruce's usual shiny black limousine.

I had many people jealous of that limo. Every time I get picked up in it, (which is most times,) two things always happen. One, people glare at me, and stick their tongues out at me. The second is that some people are extremely nice to me, giving me stuff, and saying nice things so that I might give them a ride.

Both are annoying.

But this time I ignored everything, not even stopping to politely refuse test answers, (which I took sometimes,) or pieces of candy. I hopped into the front seat of the limo next to Al with a big smile on my face.

"Hey Al," I said, buckling myself in.

"Good afternoon, Master Richard," Alfred greeted me in his usual formal way. "You seem to be in high spirits today."

I smiled. "You bet I am," I replied. "Guess what?"

Alfred looked at me. "I have no idea. May I ask what?"

My smile grew, if possible, wider. "Carl asked me if I wanted to come over to his house after school to play – er - do our homework together," I gushed. "Can I go?"

Alfred considered this for a moment, as we pulled out of the school parking lot.

"I would have to ask Master Bruce when we return to the mansion," he consented finally. "It is not mine to decide."

I gave him a look. "You really expect me to believe that Bruce is even home yet?" I asked disbelievingly. "He barely even makes it back before dinner!"

Alfred considered this. "You do have a point," he agreed slowly. He thought for a moment before saying, "I believe it would be alright with Master Bruce as long as you're back by six for your…late night prowling."

I beamed and gave him a hug. "You're the best Al!"

"I do try, Master Richard," Al sighed. "I do try. Would you like me to make full course to Mister Carl's house then?"

"Yes, please," I said, still smiling. Everything was working out just as I wanted it to.

When we neared Carl's house, I fished my cell out of my backpack. Technically, it wasn't really a cell phone. It was half regular cell phone, half high-tech Bat communicator, designed specially by Wayne Tech. It could switch from cell phone mode to Bat communicator with a click of a hidden button. It even had a special caller ID that told me if Batman or Bruce Wayne was calling me. Batgirl or Barbara Gordon. That way, I would know if I should answer as Robin, or Dick Grayson.

This time, when I used it, I simply used the regular cell phone mode and dialed Carl's number. It rang for a bit, before Carl answered it with his usual, "Hey man! What's up?" I could hear the sounds of kids chattering, and the roaring of an engine, so I figured he was still on the bus.

"Hey Carl!" I greeted him enthusiastically. "Guess what? I asked Al, and he said it's okay!"

"Alright!" Carl whooped, and then he quieted down. I heard the bus driver yelling at him clearly through the phone. "Sorry!" Carl yelled back, before getting back to me in hushed tones. "Okay, so when can you get to my house?"

"In about another minute," I rushed, smiling. "I'm almost there."

"Awesome!" Carl exclaimed, though not as loud this time. "It's almost my stop. See ya in a minute!"

"See ya!" I said, and hung up beaming.

"I take it things are going as you wished, Master Richard?" Alfred inferred.

"Oh yeah," I said. "Things are going just as I want them to."

Literally a minute later, we pulled up in front of Carl's house, where the bus was just turning the corner. After a moment, the doors opened on the yellow "Twinkie" bus, as I call them, (because it's an old fashion one with a flat front, which makes it look like a giant Twinkie,) and Carl jumped out, followed by a few other kids. I stepped out of the limo, and ran up to him.

"Dick, my man!" Carl laughed, and we did our secret handshake that we came up with in fifth grade. He waved towards his house."C'mon! Let's go in!"

I nodded enthusiastically, but before we could go, Alfred stepped out of the limo. "Master Richard!" he called. "Should I come and pick you up at six o'clock then?"

I opened my mouth to yell back, 'Yes, that's fine!' but then a thought hit me. Wayne Manor was just over the hill a couple blocks down from here. I could easily walk home when it neared six. Plus, it would show more responsibility, and maybe Bruce would let me 'study' with Carl more often!

"No, it's okay Al!" I yelled. "I can walk home! It's close enough!"

Alfred gave me a searching look. "Are you sure, sir?" he asked.

I nodded. "It's fine," I confirmed.

"Very good, then," Al said in his normal British manner. "I shall see you then, sir."

And with that, he got back in the limo and drove away.

I turned back to Carl, who was smiling. "So what first?" he asked. "Homework, or Halo 3?"

I smirked. "Which ever you prefer," I said slyly. And without as second thought, we raced into the house and made straight for the basement and the PlayStation.

After about an hour of playing video games, (mostly Halo 3, which was awesome,) we decided we had to do a little bit of studying. So we pulled out our textbooks and raced through our homework. Math was easy. We tried the problem, and if we didn't get it, we just put so much random equations in the space provided so that the answer was practically unreadable and the teacher would have to ask us what we wrote. And usually she asks these things after we go over the answers, so I won't be too hard to say the right answer.

Then came the harder part. We had a History test tomorrow, and we needed to study. There was no way we could do what we did on our math homework for this. We needed to actually study. So the two of us read through the chapter in our textbooks, which was on the Battle of Fort Donaldson in the Civil War.

It was incredibly boring.

Suddenly, Carl started laughing. I looked at him, confused. "What's so funny?"

Carl grinned in his weird way. "I know how we can remember the names in this battle," he said excitedly. "And make it fun!"

That got my attention.

"How?" I asked.

"Here," Carl said, grabbing a blank sheet of notebook paper and pencil and scribbling some stuff on it. When he was done, he showed it to me. "We them like this," he said, shaking the paper. I read it quickly.

Fort Donaldson - Fort McDonalds

Cumberland River - Cucumber River

I laughed so hard I almost fell out of my chair. Brilliant!

So we did what he said. We gave every important thing in the battle a funny name to remember it by. And it actually worked! By the time we had went through the whole chapter, giving everything a name, we actually understood the battle and how it was fought. Every teacher should teach like this!

Once we felt we had done enough work for the night, we packed up our book, and hightailed back to the PlayStation. I got so entranced in playing the game that I soon stopped glancing at my watch. It was only five o'clock, I had plenty of time…just another twenty minutes…

Sometime later, I checked my watch again.

6:45 PM

My heart plummeted and my blood turned to ice. I started to panic internally, all thoughts of the video game going skyward. Those numbers couldn't be right…my watch is off…it can't be six forty-five yet…

After a moment of staring at my watch in horror, Carl seemed to notice something was wrong. "What's up, man?" he asked, turning to me. "I just killed you three times and you just stoo-"

He looked at my watch. "Ooooo."

That got me out of my trance. Bruce was going to kill me! I catapulted up,and grabbed my backpack.

"Ihavetogo!" I said in a rush. "I'mlateforpatro-theparty!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay man!" Carl exclaimed, getting up and grabbing my arm. "My mom can call Alfred, or Mr. Wayne! She can explain to them that we lost track of time, and you won't get in trouble! Bruce will understand…"

I shook my head. He didn't get it. There was no way Bruce was going to understand why I was late for patrol. N-O W-A-Y. I was done for, and I needed to get home and into my Robin costume now if I had any chance of redeeming myself.

"No, I can handle it," I told Carl calmly. "I'll talk to Bruce. But I have to get home now! I'm already late as it is!"

Carl nodded and let go. "See you at school tomorrow buddy!" he called after me,as I raced out the door.

"Bye!" I yelled back. I waited for him to close the door before racing into an ally, and pulling out my grappling gun. I had it hidden in a secret pouch in my backpack for…emergencies. Unfortunately, I didn't have my Robin costume with me though, otherwise I'd change into it, right here, right now. But it was still in the Batcave, where Al had been mending it after my fight last night.

All the reason to get back home fast.

And not much is faster than Robin, the Boy Wonder and a grappling gun, swinging from building to building at the speed of light. I pulled my sweatshirt's hood over my head and tide it a tight as I could, so no one who saw me could identify me at first glance and took off into the night.

I reached Wayne Manor in a record time of two and a half minutes, though it felt like eternity. I rushed into the manor, past Alfred and into the Batcave, grabbing my newly repaired uniform and beginning to change into it madly. About half way through, when I was quickly stuffing on my 'pixy boots' after my 'Robin underwear' as Barbara called them, Alfred finally made it down.

"Master Richard, where have you been?" he asked. "Master Bruce had to leave without you, and I can assure you he was most unhappy."

"I can imagine," I muttered as I fastened on my cape and clicked my utility belt in place.

I stuffed my mask on and turned to Alfred. "How mad was he?" I asked after a moments hesitation.

"You do not want to know, sir," Alfred said gravely.

I grimaced. "I'm dead, aren't I?"

"Not yet, Master Richard," Al said, sighing. "But I believe close to it."

I winced. I am sooooo dead.

"You'd better get going," Al suggested. "You're already late as it is."

I nodded slowly, knowing it was my death sentence, and hopped onto my Batcycle, speeding at top speed out of the cave.

I looked at my cell phone, now Bat communicator, and looked for Bruce's homing signal. He was in Wayne Tower. Or on top of it, to be exact. I didn't want to go to him, but I knew I had to get this over with, so I grit my teeth and drove in the direction of Wayne Tower.

I got there faster than I would have liked. A few more minutes to prepare myself for what was coming would be helpful. But before I knew it, I was standing on top of the Wayne Tower, and there he was.

He was squatting on the rail, his cape billowing in the wind. He said nothing, but I knew perfectly well that he knew I was there.

I don't think I've ever been more frightened in my life.

I cleared my throat. "Um…hey…Batman…" I said awkwardly.

"Where have you been?" Bruce asked in his most deadly voice, each word a knife in my heart.

"Uh…at - at Carl's," I stuttered.

Bruce still hadn't turned around. "Carl's?" he echoed in a growl. "Your friend from school?"

"Um, yeah," I answered, kneading my gloves nervously. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap.

"What were you doingthere?" Batman asked, his voice still low and deadly.

"Uh…studying," I said quickly. "And, uh…playing some video games." I muttered the last words so softly that they were barely audible, but it was enough to make Bruce explode. He wiped around, his eyes reduced to slits.

"YOU'RE LATE FOR PATROL BECAUSE YOU WERE PLAYING VIDEO GAMES WITH YOUR FRIENDS?" he exploded. "VIDEO GAMES?"

I shrunk away like a mouse from a cat. I had never seen him this angry. And I've seen him plenty angry.

"INNOCENT PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE BEEN KILLLED IN YOUR ABSENSE!" Bruce raged. "AND YOU'Re PLAYING VIDEO GAMES?"

His words echoed around me…and right there, then, something inside me snapped.

"It's not like I was doing nothing!" I yelled at him. "We were studying for a test tomorrow! I WAS TRYING TO PULL UP MY GRADES!"

"I DON"T CARE ABOUT YOUR GRADES!" Bruce bellowed. "I CARE ABOUT ALL THE INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO MIGHT DIEIN YOUR ABSENSE! AND IF YOU CAN'T LIVE UP TO THOSE RESPONSIBILTIES THAN YOU SHOULDN'T BE ROBIN!"

It was like a punch in the gut.

"You…you don't care at all, do you?" I chocked, tears welling up behind my mask. "All you care about is what I do as Robin! How many people I save, how many criminals I catch, how much I contribute to your impossible goal!"

"I thought that's what you wanted," Bruce growled. "To help me in that goal."

"I do Bruce!" I screamed, my voice cracking now, and I hated myself for sounding like such a wimp. "I love being Robin! And I love what I do! But I care about my life too! I might not have up until this point, but I do know. I care about how I do in school. I care about my grades, Bruce!" I sniffed. "Do you even know what my grades are right now?"

Bruce said nothing.

"D's!" I yelled at him. "All D's, and two F's! And Carl's are worse! I'm flunking school, Bruce, and you don't even care! And do you know why I'm flunking?"

I looked at him, straight in his white slits for eyes, and I knew he knew the answer. But I said it anyway.

"Because of you," I snarled at him. "Because you give me no time to study, no time to do my homework, no time to even try to do well in school!"

I was crying now. My mask was droopy and wet from my tears. "All I wanted was some time," I chocked. "Some time to spend with my friend. Some time to at least spend some time with him, even though I had to deny his offers for a sleepover every time. Deny it because of my commitment to you, Bruce! Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how hard it is to have to turn down your best friend over and over again, with all these petty lies, just so I can make you happy?"

I glared at him, but he still said nothing. "You don't get it," I snapped. "How hard it for me to do all this .Being Robin, keeping up in school, and still being a good friend. Truthfully…truthfully I don't see how Barbara can handle it. Because…because I don't think I can take much more."

And then I broke down and cried.

I hated myself for breaking down in front of him like this, but the pain of all the pressure I have been under for the past few months was too much. I can't handle all this anymore. It's too much, and Bruce knows that. But all he does is stand there. Stand there like he is now, and do nothing. No help at all. And right then, looking at his stiff, emotionless figure above me, I felt like I no longer knew him. This was no longer the kind man who took me in when my parents were murdered. This wasn't the man I have so long admired, making me want to be just like him. No, this wasn't him. This was the cold, dark, and ruthless Batman. And I didn't know him anymore.

I lay there, crying, until I could cry no more. Then I got up, wiped my tears, and fixed my mask. And I looked straight into those white slits again. Cold. Unwelcoming.

"I'm going to patrol the East End," I said icily.

And with that, I pulled out my grappling gun and jumped off the building.

And I didn't look back.