The Art of Secrecy
It was Monday once again and Abby was walking across the school courtyard looking for her friends. The weekend had gone by too fast for Abby's taste. On Saturday, Abby went with Bruce to get a dress for Dent's fundraiser and as for Sunday she spent the day with Aaron. It was a very enjoyable weekend, but it still went too fast. She found Aaron and T.J. sitting on a bench nearby their first class.
She smiled. "Hey guys. How was the weekend?"
"Pretty good," said T.J. "Aaron and I went to GameStop on Saturday and rented out a few video games."
"Yeah, he mentioned that. Well, I went to shop for a dress with my dad on Saturday and basically spent the rest of the day with him."
"What's the dress for?"
"This fundraiser that my dad is throwing for Harvey Dent. You guys are invited by the way…and please come. I'd rather not spend the whole night talking to a bunch of people that I don't know."
Aaron gave her an inquisitive look. "Sure, but why is your dad throwing him a fundraiser? He's not up for election for another three years or so."
"That's what I said. But he has his mind set on Dent being the next DA again, so I can't really argue with him."
"You're dad knows Harvey Dent?" T.J. asked incredulously.
Abby rolled her eyes. "It's kind of hard for him not to. My mom is dating him."
"Whoa, girl. You're connected to some pretty powerful people."
"I could say the same for you."
"Yeah, but to me Lucius is still my gramps despite being the CEO of Wayne Enterprises."
"Exactly, T.J. it doesn't matter how rich my dad is or how many celebrities he knows, he is and will always be my dad."
"Very well said. Now if you don't mind us getting off topic, I'd like to make a proposition."
Aaron moaned. "Not this again. I told you, she won't go for it."
"What exactly is this proposition?" Abby inquired.
T.J. proceeded to his so called proposition. "All right, I've been hearing about this Renee chick around school and I heard that you and she have some issues. I'm thinking that we can do this big prank on her that involves a few secrets being leaked about her."
"No, T.J., we're not going to make up random things about Renee and text them to everyone."
"They're not made up. I've actually done my research on this. It turns out that her dad never wanted to hand down their family business, Kendal Networks, to Renee, but yet it says here in the records that she's next in line for the business. I did extensive research yesterday on why that was and found that she paid off her little brother, Jason to reject his father's proposition to accept the company when he was old enough."
"How did you find that out?"
"I found it on some security tape taken about a year ago. So what do you think about it? We threaten to leak this information about Renee and she'll leave you alone for the rest of high school."
Abby was speechless. She didn't realize that Renee would go as low as this to get what she wanted. Sure, Abby realized that Renee was persistent, but never would have guessed that she would go to that length (not counting the incident with Sasha of course). Abby didn't even know that Renee had a brother, now that she thought about it. As wrong as Renee was to do that, Abby still couldn't see herself using this as leverage to get Renee to leave Abby alone.
She sighed. "I'm sorry, T.J. I can't. Unlike Renee, I actually have a conscience and it would be wrong to bribe her with this."
"She told the world that you were Bruce Wayne's daughter," T.J. tried to convince her further more. "Don't tell me that you don't have one feeling of revenge in there."
"I don't want…revenge. Sure she interrupted my once normal life, but getting revenge is not the way to teach her a lesson. By the way, this isn't a prank we're talking about here. It's bribery."
"So what? She'll see what you've done to her and back off."
"Tell me, T.J., is this how you handle these situations? Fight fire with fire? Trust me, I've done that for years and that's gotten me nowhere with Renee."
"If you don't fight with fire then you're just going to get burned."
"Give it up, dude," said Aaron. "She's not going to do it."
"Fine, like good little angels, we'll leave it alone," T.J. groaned. "But just out of curiosity, why are you letting this go?"
"I'm sick of fighting with Renee," Abby stated firmly. "And doing this gamble that you've decided to throw will provoke the feud even more."
Aaron smiled. "You're dad talked to you, didn't he?"
"Maybe…"
"The real question here, T.J. is why are you even thinking about doing this? You haven't met Renee in person."
T.J. ran his hand through his short curly brown hair. "It's just that I thought owed you, Abby. I know that I can be a piece of work sometimes, but you were one of the few that stuck with me. I only wanted to do something to thank you."
Abby was taken aback by his confession. "Well, you're welcome, T.J. But you don't owe me anything. I was doing it for unselfish purposes."
"I know, but it's one of those in debt things that you can't let go of. Speaking of that, instead of bringing your enemy down, I'll just bring you something."
"Please don't waste your money on me. You'll make me want to owe you."
"Trust me, I won't me doing that. I'll just give you what I have now."
T.J. began digging through his bag. Abby looked at Aaron with wary eyes. She really did appreciate the thanks that T.J. was giving her, but she felt that this was too much. Besides, who knew what was in that bag of his. Her worry suddenly turned into curiosity as he handed her on what looked to be an iPhone.
She pushed it back to him. "Thanks, but I can't take your phone."
He shook his head. "It's not an iPhone, if that's what you're thinking. It's a tracking system. One sample of DNA whether it's a fingerprint or a sample of hair and this baby is able to track down anyone you want. Oh, and I added a feature where you can enter phone numbers too to track down cell phones in case the DNA thing doesn't work out."
"You made this?"
"Yep. I make gadgets when I'm bored. You wouldn't believe how many were in my suitcase when I came here."
Abby slipped the DNA tracker into her bag. "Wow…Once again I feel that I have done nothing with my free time. Thanks a bunch, T.J. I don't know who I'll track down, but appreciate the gesture."
"No prob. It's the least I can do."
The first bell rang for the day.
Aaron got up from his seat. "Let's get going. I'm pretty sure we'll see Sasha and Heather in class sometime today."
Nodding, Abby and T.J. followed Aaron into their history class. Once again nothing happened in history class except the usual lecture about the Romans. Abby fought to stay awake in that class, she didn't even know how many times. Thankfully the class went by quicker than usual that day which allowed Abby and Aaron to head towards Music Appreciation class. She didn't understand why she had to take it other than it fulfilled her fine arts requirement, but she was stuck in the class nonetheless.
Aaron and Abby sat in their usual seats in the music room as the late bell rang.
"Okay," their teacher, Mrs. Berkley said. "Today we're just going to continue what we were doing last Friday. In case you were in another world during that time, I will brief you on your assignment once again. Each of you will get into a group of either two or three people and compose a song using at least one vocalist and one instrument of your choice. I hope to have this done by the end of class, but if you need more time I'll extend it into tomorrow's class. Go ahead and get working now."
"I'll get the guitar real quick, but do me a favor and get my song book out of my bag," said Aaron before leaving.
Abby obeyed Aaron's orders and pulled out his thin hardcover book from his bag. Ever since that day when Aaron came to visit Abby because of Bruce's "sickness" and preformed that song for them, he'd been keeping record of the songs that he wrote. Some were great and others were just random. She remembered Aaron writing a song on how mad he was at Jared for breaking his phone. That was one of the random ones.
Aaron returned with the guitar from the other room. "Do you remember if we wrote a song last week or decided on a song in the book?"
"Not really. I remember us discussing about it, but we didn't exactly make progress."
"Well, let's go into one of the rooms and start on it then."
"Right with ya."
Abby followed Aaron into one of the small practice rooms. She closed the door behind her and sat in one of the two seats in the room.
"What about that song that I heard you singing last week?" Abby suggested. "You know the one that sounded all depressing and was inspired by World War II?"
Aaron bit his lip. "I don't know about that one. It's still kind of in bits and pieces."
"We can still work from that. It sounded pretty good when I came into the room."
"Fine, we'll take a look at it." He flipped through his book until he got the page titled: "Somebody To Save".
"Like I said before," he sighed, "it's not in the greatest shape."
"Don't worry, that's why we're working on it."
"Okay this is what I have so far: 'I can't breathe…I feel like I'm gonna die…I wanna say things are getting better, but that would be a lie…I can see the clouds closing in…The darkness taking over…I wanna get out…I don't want to see anybody suffer anymore'—and that's about it."
"All right we have the beginning part down," said Abby. "What about the bridge? Have you thought about how that would go yet?"
"I've tried, but I can't seem to find where to go from here. Why don't you take a whack at it? Maybe something will click."
"Okay, let me think about this for a sec." Abby glanced at the title of the song once again. "Wait what about this: 'Then I see your face and know that things are gonna get better.'"
"Not bad and then we can speed up the tempo and add something like 'you're the reason I haven't gone insane' or something like that."
"Definitely."
Abby and Aaron spent the rest of class going through and writing the song. This was the first time she had co-written with Aaron with any of his songs. He usually was the one to work alone in this type of art. But this time he let her put in her opinion despite her lack of experience. Abby enjoyed it at the least. Aaron was the one who came up with notes and the beat while Abby added in a few lyrics. They finally finished with five minutes left in the class.
Abby looked nervously at the clock. "Now that we're done with the song, who's gonna sing it tomorrow?"
"It's definitely not going to be me. You've heard me trying to sing for years and obviously there's no improvement."
"I heard a slight improvement when you sang today," Abby tried to convince him.
He looked at her in disbelief. "Slight? What about you then? You can sing the song to spare our classmates' ears."
"I don't know. I've never sung before…and I get a little bit of stage fright."
"It's okay. Mrs. Berkley isn't grading us on how great we can sing anyway."
"Then why aren't you singing?"
"I'm playing the guitar and we need at least one vocalist in the group. I promise you it will be over before you even know it. Plus, you owe me like twenty, remember?" Aaron smirked.
Abby huffed. She hated it when he played that card on her regardless of how true it was. "Fine. Just please send me the song tonight so I can practice."
"Sure thing."
The bell rang for second period. Abby stood up from her seat and headed towards the door.
Aaron's voice stopped her. "Wait, Abs. Can I ask you something?"
Abby turned to face him. "Sure. What do you need to ask?"
"Nothing important really, but do you ever get the feeling that something is about to happen?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean like this thing in your gut telling you something's wrong."
"Once or twice, but not lately if that's what you're asking."
"Well, I've been getting that feeling for awhile now. I don't know what it is but I don't like it. Ever since I've heard about the robbery with the clown last week…I just…I just don't feel right anymore. And that's just the thing. I can't figure out why I would be feeling this way. Nothing is wrong in my life right now. I have my family, I have you, my friends, and school seems to be going well so far. I don't know what the heck is going on."
"I'm pretty sure it's nothing, Aaron," Abby reassured. "Maybe you're just being a little bit paranoid."
"Yeah, maybe. When I heard of that robbery, I thought you mainly because of your fear of clowns."
"I'm actually kind of over that."
"I'd figure just as much. I guess I am just being paranoid, but the feeling's still there you know."
Abby took his hand. "I know, but the best thing we can do right now is stay calm."
"You know I love you, right?" he smiled.
"Sure do and I love you too."
They shared a small kiss before getting ready to head to their next class.
Before Abby had known it, lunch had come around. She gathered with her friends at their usual spot and began to eat the sandwich that Alfred had packed her.
"So, Abby," said Sasha in between bites of her food. "I heard your dad was having a fundraiser for Harvey Dent."
"I was about to tell you that, but where did you hear it?" Abby questioned.
"From T.J. He wouldn't stop talking to me in English and he just happened to mention it. So what gives? He's not up for election in three years."
"I know he's not, but my dad insists in throwing him one since he seems to like Dent as the current DA."
"Is going to be one of those boring types of parties again?" Heather groaned.
"Yes, but please come," Abby nearly begged. "I really don't want to be alone with my mom, dad, and Dent in the same room."
"Fine. We'll make it a group thing like what we did for your dad's birthday party last year."
"Sounds good to me. The only thing different this time is that T.J. is joining us."
Aaron's head turned from left to right. "Speaking of T.J., where is he?"
"He said he was going to buy lunch and meet us here, but that was like ten minutes ago," Heather answered.
"It's probably just the lunch line that's holding him up."
"Probably. I heard they were serving Sloppy Joes with chocolate cake today."
"Oh, there he is," Aaron pointed to the middle of the courtyard.
Abby looked into the direction that Aaron was pointing. T.J. made his way over to where they were sitting with a tray full of food. From the corner of her eye, she could see Renee walking with Riley, giggling as she did so. Abby didn't see why somebody would want to date Renee. She clearly had no morals and couldn't be trusted. Renee looked towards Abby's way and gave her a glare. Abby returned the glare and turned back to her food. It was then a loud shrieking scream sounded through the entire school.
Abby turned her head to the direction of the shriek. Her eyes went wide. Renee stood in front of T.J., her eyes burning in front of him. Abby wondered why Renee was giving him such a look until she realized that T.J.'s tray was on the ground and the food was all over Renee's designer top and skirt.
"You stupid clumsy geek," Renee seethed through her teeth loud enough for the whole school to hear. "This was a one thousand dollar outfit!"
"Look, I'm really sorry," T.J. stuttered.
Riley grabbed the collar of T.J.'s shirt. "You better be twerp!"
Abby sprang to her feet and sprinted towards them. Riley's fist was only inches from hitting T.J.'s face until Abby grasped his fist.
"Really, Riley?" Abby smirked. "Picking on the new kid? Now I know that's below you."
Riley pulled his fist back. "Well, he shouldn't have poured his lunch all over Renee."
"It was an accident, I swear!" T.J. quickly defended himself.
"Then you need to watch where you're going."
Abby glowered at Riley. "The same should go for you."
"Why the sudden bravery, Wayne?" Renee's frown formed into a mischievous cat grin. "You've been avoiding me all week. Why choose now to face me?"
"Maybe because your boyfriend was about to beat T.J. up and it had nothing to do with you."
"At least it would be more than what your own boyfriend could do for you. If this happened to you, he would probably just stand there."
"No, he wouldn't. Unlike Riley, Aaron would act rationally about the situation."
"I guess you could think of it that way. By the way, your friend better watch where he's going or else there will be real trouble."
"That's it," she snapped. "I'm tired of this. Ever since we've met, you've tried to make my life worse than it has to be. What have I done to deserve this, Renee? I tried to be friendly with you, but you just put me down instead."
"You're weak, that's why. Sure you fight back every time, but when I decide to pick on any of your friends or your family for that matter, you get emotional. That punch you gave me last year wasn't out of reason. It was purely because you couldn't control your emotions. That's the thing about emotions: if you don't know how to control them, they kill."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Abby said barely over a whisper.
"Oh, I know what I'm talking about. Ever since your dad left, your emotions have become haywire. You avoided everybody when he left like they were a disease and then you got angry at the world. Sure, you're ten times better than you were eight years ago now because he's back, but how long is it going to be until he leaves again?"
Abby clenched her fist. "Stop it, now."
"Face it, Wayne: you're a failure. You're even a failure in your father's eyes as long as you don't keep your emotions in check. I'm surprised that he's stuck around for this long with you."
"I said, stop it right now. Do you really want another broken nose?"
Renee pointed in the other direction. "That's if the teachers watching us will allow it."
Abby looked in that direction and saw a group of teachers walking by them.
"Remember what happened last time?" Renee mocked.
"I do and you're getting off lucky this time. But don't doubt that I won't try it again."
"When will that be? In a dark alley?"
"It doesn't matter. Anywhere would be suitable for your very low moral standards." Abby grasped T.J.'s arm. "C'mon, let's go."
Abby led T.J. away from the scene. She couldn't believe how low Renee could really be. She had clearly remembered Renee's taunts from the many years her father had disappeared, but none of them compared to how devious she sounded just moments before. Abby wanted to punch her more than anything. The only thing that was keeping her from doing so of course was not the teachers, but her promise to Bruce to try to work things out. Abby knew that what Renee said wasn't right. She wasn't emotional and Bruce loved her more than anything. He leave would never leave her again like that.
She finally stopped tugging on T.J.'s arm when they met with Aaron, Sasha, and Heather. All of whom were standing straight up (with the exception of Sasha being on her crutches).
T.J. rubbed his arm. "Ow, that hurt."
"Sorry, I probably released my anger on you by accident," said Abby.
Aaron put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Abs? I heard what Renee said."
"I'm fine, but definitely didn't like the reminder that Renee gave me of last year."
"I never knew Renee could be that cold," Heather muttered.
Sasha snorted. "I realized that her heart was made of ice when she put me on crutches for two weeks."
"I meant with her words, but I guess that counts too."
"No wonder you guys hate that chick," said T.J. "Her boyfriend nearly shredded me to bits."
"That's why we try to stay clear of her nowadays," Aaron mumbled and then faced Abby. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. They're just words." Even Abby didn't believe herself when she said that.
Before Aaron could say anything about it, the bell echoed throughout the courtyard.
"I gotta get to class," Abby went over to grab her bag. "Mr. Kelly will kill me if I'm late to his class again."
"I guess I'll see you in P.E. then." Aaron kissed her lightly on her forehead.
"See you then, Aaron." Abby faced Heather and Sasha. "I'll see you guys too."
"And so will I," T.J. added.
Aaron, Heather, and Sasha rolled their eyes at T.J., gave one final wave and headed off into the opposite direction.
Abby gave T.J. an annoyed look. "Was that really necessary?"
"In my book, yes."
"Whatever—we need to get to Geometry. I can't afford to be late."
"Ditto, so let's go."
With T.J. along her side, they both went across the courtyard. It was mostly silent between them during their short trip. Abby still unconsciously replayed the incident with Renee through her head. Usually after a situation like this, Abby would move on with her life after any encounters with Renee, but this time was different. She couldn't decide whether or not what Renee said was true. Granted Renee had her share of lies, but when Renee really wanted to be honest, she was right. Abby only wanted to forget it ever happened.
They walked past a group of boys when Abby distinctly heard one of the boys say, "So is everything in order?"
"Yep, our Batman team thing should be in order for tonight now," said another boy.
Abby stopped dead on her tracks. She ignored T.J.'s question on why they had stopped and listened intently to what the group of boys were saying.
The first boy spoke again. "So where should be go for our first night out?"
"The Narrows definitely," said a third boy. "There's danger everywhere."
Abby turned to the boys. "Yeah, if you're looking for danger then the Narrows is definitely the place."
The first boy glared at her. "Since when did we include you in this conversation?"
All of the other boys followed his glare. They were much taller than Abby or T.J. ever was and were strongly built. Abby didn't exactly see them as intimidating, but yet they didn't seem like the kind of people you'd want to mess with.
"Never. I just heard you talking about doing some Batman stuff. What, is one of you guys the Batman or something?"
"No, but we plan to help him out," one of the boys smiled smugly.
"You mean annoying him with your attempts to take down the thugs of this city. Yeah, that sounds like a definite plan to me."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean you're not just going to run into the usual thugs. Those guys are easy compared to whack jobs like Scarecrow. Do you really want to be sprayed with his fear toxin?"
"Scarecrow's in Arkham now. We won't have to worry about him."
"I guess you're right on that," said Abby, nodding her head. "But you still haven't considered the mob. Now that they're desperate, I'd expect them to be a lot more vicious. Imagine while cruising through the night as Batman and someone grabs you from behind. What kind of torture devices do you think they'll use if they think you're the real Batman, huh? I sure wouldn't like to find out."
All of the boys went deathly quiet at her presumption.
Abby grinned at them. "Well good luck with your first night as Batman. Hopefully the mob isn't too bored tonight."
She turned away from them and headed back into the path of her math class.
"Maybe we shouldn't go," she heard one of the boys mutter.
Abby smirked. They were definitely not Batman material. Even if they were she still would've done the same thing for the sake of her father. From the various stories of the "Copybats" that Bruce had told her, they had only got in the way of what Bruce was trying to do.
"What was with that anyway?" T.J. inquired.
"I was just trying to prove to them that Batman is Batman and no one can replace him."
"What is it with this city and this guy? Is he like your guys' idol or something?"
Abby bit her lip. "I wouldn't say that he was an idol, but he's been cleaning up the city for the past year or so. This is the lowest crime rate we've had in years."
"So you're letting a guy dressed up as a bat clean up your city."
"That's the basic idea of it, but it's only until Gotham is stable enough to take care of itself."
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "How—"
Jared's voice stopped T.J. in midsentence. "Hey, guys."
"Hi, Jared," Abby gave a small smile.
"Do you have a sec?"
"I have three minutes left to get to my next class, so sure. What do you want to talk about?"
"I'm just letting you know not worry about those guys that you told off. They're not actually going to go out tonight as Batman."
"Then why did they say they were?"
"They were bluffing. They think it'll get them girlfriends or something, but you still need to be careful. One of those guys' dads is one of the escapees from Arkham last year and my dad's been investigating his home. He suspects that his family may be hiding him."
"What exactly is your point here?"
"Be careful what you say…especially around him. He could tell his dad one thing about you and next thing you know you're being hunted by one of the most feared criminals."
Abby gulped. "I'm pretty sure it's not that big of a deal. Besides I didn't say anything insulting to them and what would a lunatic want with me anyway?"
"You're really asking that, Princess?" T.J. added sourly.
She paused. Would being the daughter of Bruce Wayne cause her to become a human target? As far as she knew Bruce hadn't done anything to make a criminal less than happy. The only reason that she could come up with on why someone would come after her was for money. Batman on the other hand was a different story. If people knew she was the daughter of Batman then she might as well dye her hair blond, work in a diner in Canada, and go by the name of Goldie.
Before she could ask the first question that came into her mind, the bell rang.
"Dang it! I'm late again!" she quietly cursed.
"And you're dragging me down with you," T.J. growled.
Jared smiled smugly at them. "I'd like to help you guys out, but I have to get to work. I'll see you around."
T.J. whispered to her as Jared left. "I sure can't wait to be a senior."
"No kidding. Let's go to class and face Kelly's wrath before security catches us in the hall."
As they continued to walk though, she still had her conversation with Jared in her mind. What would a lunatic want with her?
Hey guys, sorry if this was late. I started school three weeks ago and work is still being pilled on me. I will get the next chapter out, but I don't know when though. Anyway, hopefully I'm not boring you to death yet. I'm trying to build up the action just right before the Joker starts to step in. And for those of you who are asking when he shows up, it will be soon. Till next time.
~Emyrox567