Chapter Four

I was sat down at breakfast the following morning contemplating what Dr. Crane had said to me yesterday. It was, on face value, a very attractive offer. He worked in pharmaceutical medicine; which was the field I wanted to go into and he had offered me a ticket out of here. He had told me to consider his offer and get back to him next week, not to make any rash decisions on my future.

But what was the price? I had had difficulty trusting people all my life and I couldn't help but wonder why Crane wanted to help me. What was in it for him? Or was he really just helping me out? I mean I'd only been in his 'treatment' for two weeks and he had already decided he wanted to give me a chance. What had he seen in me that others had previously ignored? These questions had been whirling through my head since yesterday and I hadn't had a very good night's sleep as a direct result.

The downside of Crane's offer would be I didn't know the man and I would be leaving behind everything I knew. I had been in this old and draughty house for a very long time now, my early childhood memories were snatches and glimpses in my mind. It was strange, I had yearned about leaving this place for years and years, and now that there was an actually opportunity to get out of here, I was actually slightly afraid. I would die before I admitted to anyone else but I was scared. I think not being so would be intensely foolish. Surely everyone is apprehensive when it gets to the point of leaving everything you've ever known?

"Hey Ivy! Did you hear?" asked a voice behind me. I twisted in my seat to see Magdalena, my other roommate, coming up behind me.

"Probably not?" I said with a slight smile on my face. I had much more time for Magdalena than I did for Lia; there was something so much more genuine about her, and she always seemed to be happy. Her mother had died when she was extremely young and her father had run off with another woman, abandoning her on the step of the orphanage when she was four years old. She was clearly of Italian descent with her beautiful eyes portraying her heritage.

"Check this out" she said throwing a newspaper down in front of me. She had probably nicked it from the warden's table when they'd gone up to get their breakfast.

I looked at the black headline with a colour picture underneath it. It declared BILLIONAIRE BRUCE RETURNS FROM THE DEAD, with a picture of a slightly grumpy looking Bruce Wayne pictured underneath. I looked over the article which talked about how Bruce Wayne, 'Prince of Gotham', a man who had been declared missing probably dead, when he had simply vanished off the face of the earth seven years ago. It said that the newly returned Mr. Wayne, son of Thomas and Martha, was in talks with the Wayne Enterprises board to save the public floating of his shares. I wasn't really interested in what was going on on the stock market, but it was fairly interesting that Gotham's biggest celebrity was now back in town. It was supposedly interesting enough that nothing else was mentioned on the front page.

"Well that's going to get the papers excited"," I said pushing the paper back towards her.

"It already has, clearly" said Magdalena with a smile as she looked at the picture, "He's very handsome isn't he?"

I raised an eyebrow at her and giggled. Apart from the fact that she was only fourteen, it was the also that Bruce Wayne was something of an A-Lister to Gotham. He had film star status, and a playboy reputation to go with it, without ever having been anywhere near the camera.

"Yeah I guess he is," I said glancing at the picture, "Well I guess it's good he's back?"

"Well it provides me with something to gawk at in the papers" she said with a giggle. Just then the bell rang for the beginning of Maggie's schooling hours.

"Well I'll guess I'll see you later Ivy, for gymnastics?" she said getting up.

"Yeah sure," I said, "Have fun in triple math!"

She pulled a face at me as she picked her bag up off the floor beside the table, stuffed the paper into it, and headed off towards the buildings adjacent to this one, where all the classrooms were situated.

I vaguely wondered where Wayne had been for seven years. That was a long time for anyone to totally disappear; to cover his tracks so completely that everyone thought he was dead. The article had mentioned 'travelling the world', but surely somebody would have seen and recognised him in that time? I tried to imagine what it would be like to simply vanish for seven years, to do what I liked, and with whom I pleased. It sounded so blissful that it couldn't be anything other than a dream.

"Ivy, can you move please, the cleaners want to get this hall ready for gym" I looked up as one of the wardens spoke to me. I was the last one in the breakfast hall, being one of the only girls who didn't have to go to school when the bell rang. I got to my feet that were clad only in socks that had a hole where my big toe poked through. That was another reason I would be glad to go work for Dr. Crane – at least I would have some money to call my own and would be able to actually buy some clothes that weren't over three years old.

I guessed that was one thing Bruce Wayne never had to worry about – money.

"Balance Magdalena, balance!" yelled the gym teacher as Maggie wobbled to-and-fro on the mothballed beam we had in the centre of the room. I watched as she put her toe down on the beam and then attempted to rise back up onto one leg. It didn't work; she fell off.

"Better luck next time," I said to her as she came to join me at the side of the beam.

"I always sucked at this" she said with a shrug, "You're up after Jenny"

"Yeah," I said as I watched the inept little girl wobble up and down the beam. As I said before, sport was my forte, I knew I could beat all of these girls into a hat when it came to gym, so I didn't really worry.

"Alright, Ivy!" I approached the beam and hoisted myself up onto it, not especially liking the feel of the torn material beneath my bare feet.

"Just mess about for a minute or so," said the gym teacher, knowing perfectly well that there was no point trying to teach me anything. I didn't really need to work on my balance or foot placement. I did a one handed cartwheel along the beam and then a handstand before jumping lightly off the end and landing. I didn't really see the point of dicking about too long, as long as I got the mark I needed to pass fitness, that's all I cared about.

"Show off" said Magdalena when I got back to the group beside the beam.

"Well I'm not quite sure why they make me get up there in the first place," I said, "I'm hardly going to stand there like a lemon"

"A lemon?" asked Maggie looking at me, "I like it…"

I giggled as we watched Lia on the beam, she was fairly apt at it, but the look of concentration on her face gave away the effort involved. As we watched a loud and ear-piercing squeak from above informed us that the intercom was about to be used.

"Will Magdalena Thorpe please report to Mother Watson's office as soon as possible please" came the voice of Mr. Haal across the system, "Thank you"

I looked to my side at Maggie who looked perplexed, "Any idea what that's about?"

"Not a clue," she said, shaking her head, "Not a clue. I'll see you back in the room before dinner?"

"Yeah sure," I said as she moved to head off to the office, "I hope it's not anything serious!"

"Me too!" she laughed nervously and then flitted off in the direction of the doors leading inside.

I was upstairs changing from my gym clothes back into my jeans and a t-shirt when Magdalena came back in. She wasn't crying or anything like that, which was always a good sign. She just had a look of intense thought on her face.

"What was it?" I asked her as she stood by her bed that was underneath mine.

"They think they can find my family" she said slowly, a totally stunned look on her face. I turned around to look her.

"They do? How?" I asked her, cautious about what my reaction should be.

"Well you know how my mother left her family when she married my father?" she asked

"Yeah," I said, she had told me this before and I wondered where this was going.

"Well they think they've found some evidence as to who my mother's family were, something that they've never known before" she said her eyes meeting mine.

"What evidence? Leading where?" I said not wanting to show emotion leading either way.

"They won't tell me until they know for sure" she said. I felt a bubbling of anger that was slightly unexplainable. I was angry because they had clearly built Maggie's hopes up without being able to offer her any confirmation of those hopes. How dare they? They had never suffered as we had – they had never had to endure having the feeling of hope snatched away.

They didn't know what it was like to have no-one in the entire world.