1I never watched the news except with Joker and Harley, so when I stepped out of Mr. Wayne's limousine and was suddenly mauled by concerned friends I was slightly bemused. After assuring my friends I was okay, and waving off the policeman that was headed towards us, I introduced Dick.

"Um, guys, this is Dick Grayson, Mr. Wayne's surrogate son. Dick, this is Mary, Wendy, Monica, Jenny, and Ryan, my best friends."

There was a small moment of tension, before the warning bell rang for us all to get to first period. We walked together to the main hall, and then the group split, Mary, Dick, and I heading for English, while the others headed for their own classes.

"Hn," Mary made a slight sound of bemusement when we took our seats in the back of the class. The chair-desk combo's, those annoying ones that always make you either hunch over or sit really far back, were arranged in five rows of six chairs, then there was a single row with three desks. No one ever sat there unless they were in trouble.

"What?" I asked, pulling my binder from my school bag. I should mention, my school bag was found, with all my work and textbooks and supplies, outside the school with a letter attached to it. The unopened letter was in the otherwise empty front pocket of the bag.

"It's just weird. What can he," she nodded to Dick, who was talking to Mr. Vernon, the English teacher, "possibly do to protect you. Wouldn't it be easier to assign an officer to you or something? I mean, now they have officers watching you both, but not going to each class with you. It makes absolutely no sense."

Damn Mary and her logic. I hated her logic. She had tried to use it on me before, when she and Wendy had been worried about my home life. I'd almost gone to the police that very day.

Maybe I should be listening to her now.

"I don't know; I think they believe if Joker does come, Dick could help, distract him or run for help, something. I think he and Mr. Wayne are a bit skeptical of the Gotham Police; he and the commissioner seemed to know each other well."

"Hn," now the same sound was made to signify she would let it rest, for now. "I guess that actually could make sense, the police have never been able to keep that freak locked up. Oh," Mary paused, looking at me apologetically, "Umm.. Sorry."

"Don't be," I grinned, "You always told me my family must be from the loony bin. You were half right."

We laughed together I felt as if a weight was lifted. It was like... an ordinary day. I no longer had to hide my home life. I no longer had to lie to my best friends. I didn't have to be the girl that wouldn't let anyone spend the night, or come over after school - well... I didn't technically have a 'home' right then, but the point remained.

I never realized how guarded I had been around the people I trusted most.

It felt good.

First period went by quickly, Mr. Vernon assigned us a creative writing exercise, and allowed no disruption in his classroom - well... didn't allow anyone to pester me - Mary and I passed notes to each other, quite conspicuously, all period. Mr. Vernon was great, though, he figured if we were done and we usually produced high quality, we were fine.

I tried to get Dick to join in the note writing, but he wasn't finished when Mary and I were. Of course, we girls usually had extra short stories stashed away in our binders to whip out to turn in at the last minute.

After English, Dick and I headed for P.E. and parted ways at the locker rooms. Once inside I found Wendy waiting by my gym locker and we talked a bit about our first classes as we dressed down for the day.

She stopped me when I moved to head for the door back into the main gym, though.

"Mir," Wendy had long since gotten rid of most of my name, deciding three syllables was too complicated, "are you... okay? Aside from the obvious? I mean.. I think maybe you should just get some make-up assignments or something and go back to Wayne Manor. It's got to be a lot safer than school."

I smiled lightly at my friend, both grateful and guilty for her concern.

"I'm fine. It.. Helps to know part of my day isn't going to change."

She nodded once. "Alright, but if you need to talk..."

"I will, but not yet, I promise, you'll get all the best gossip," I grinned and she returned the smile as we parted to sit alphabetically against the sidewall in the gym.

Gym passed quickly, the ten minute jog and following badminton mini-tournament did wonders for taking my mind off of things, and soon Dick and I were waving to Wendy and heading for math.

My homework that I had worked so hard on, and gotten so worked up over, proved to be worth crying over, in the sense that it was a perfect score. I didn't have any close friends in my math class, but Dick was allowed to sit beside me and I told him more about my friends and the rest of the school day when our class work was finished.

"Wait... you're in choir?" he suddenly seemed crestfallen. "I have to... sing?"

"Not if you don't want to, I guess. Mr. Nahkla wouldn't make you... I think," I pondered for a moment over my eccentric choir director. "Maybe he will. We only have a few guys... and the majority are gay or questionable."

He grimaced. "I can't sing," he said firmly, almost to himself.

I just grinned, that's what Ryan had said before I convinced him two year earlier to take the elective, and now he was in our school choir and his church group as well.

"Don't worry we have history and lunch before then anyway," I winked. "Besides, you get to see my final project for history, it's pretty epic, not gonna lie."

"So humble," he smirked and we both laughed.

Math seemed to fly by, and, as I knew it would, my stomach started to flip-flop. I always got shaky and nervous before a presentation or performance, and this was a combination of the two. Dick, obviously concerned, asked me how I was feeling.

"I'm fine, just nervous for my presentation. Whenever I'm center stage I'm a bit wired I guess."

"You must get that from your mom."

As soon as he said the words he winced, and looked apologetic.

"Miranda, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"No," I cut him off, "It's okay." I then smiled. "It's actually funny. He... loves the limelight. So do I, I just don't quite... captivate the audience like he does."

I assured him twice more that I wasn't upset before the bell rang and when it did my stomach knotted once again. Swallowing hard I managed a smile for Dick and led him down the hallway to our next class. We both went to Mr. Conklin, our teacher, and explained that Dick was going to be with me for an undetermined amount of time.

When the bell rang for class to begin Mr. Conklin quieted down the class, took roll, then called me up for my presentation. I came to the front and put my poster on an art easel we'd borrowed from the art department, and then Mr. Conklin helped me set up his stereo on the front table.

I smiled to him, took a breath, then turned to address the class.

"I'm Miranda Matson, and I'd like to talk to you about a few of the 'incidences'," I used air quotes for the word, "of the Civil War."

As I began talking of the injustices done by both the North and South, I found myself getting more and more into my topic. I made wild gestures with the hands, I used my tone to show how I felt about the way soldiers from both sides had murdered and raped, and I even knocked over my poster in my exuberance. Mr. Conklin helped me recover from that.

And then came time to use the stereo.

"I have two songs I would like to sing to you. I bet everyone will know the tuneof at least one of the songs. First I have a country song, don't judge," I added when I heard a groan and I stared pointedly at one of the football players. "It details the way the North felt when the war was over. Then I have an 80's rock ballad, accompanied by the original artist, Twisted Sister, to show you how the South felt when the war began."

The country song went well, mostly because it was an emotional number and to make fun of it was to be crass a unrefined. But as soon as I turned on the stereo to sing my version of 'We're Not Gonna Take It,' every face in the class had either a smile or a look that said, I don't know this person.

--

Eh?

Sorry it took me so long to update, and thanks a ton for all the reviews!

I know this was kinda short, but I wanted to break the school day up a bit. So, if things go according to my plans, I should actually have the last half of school up in a week or less.

If anyone's interested in the lyrics to the songs, I could post them, because the entire project was actually a bit of a play by play of what my eighth grade History final was... yeah, I sang along to Twisted Sister.