Terra helped Robin put all his stuff back and Robin invited her to sit down on his bed.
"So," Robin said coyly, "you're not really a prep….are you?" Terra shook her head and laughed. Robin handed her a bottle of Pepsi. "Well then, what's your angle?" He sat down next to her and looked at her intently. "Why do you suck up to people like Nerkerman and Bruce, when you're so clearly not what they think?" Terra eyed him, there was definitely more to this boy then met the eye. He was pretty similar to her. And he wasn't the wannabe punks she met all the time. There was something real about him, something rebellious but just enough that he wanted to be himself. He was okay.
"You want to know the truth? Fine, then get me some pop-tarts and you have yourself a bedtime story." Robin went to the mini-fridge and took out some pop-tarts.
"So." Terra started as she bit into a chocolate pop-tart. Robin couldn't help but admire how well-poised she was even as she chewed. Not a crumb fell onto her shirt. She was perfect! He then realized what he had just thought and slapped himself mentally. He shook his head and Terra gave him a weird look, but continued.
"I guess it all started when I was a little kid. When I was younger, my dad used to get drunk all the time. He'd always hit me and my mom and my little brother, Adrian. One day my mom just packed us up and we left. Ever since then we never really stayed in one place for very long. At first, I tried to make friends, I was a little precocious and I would try really hard to get to no anyone that looked remotely "friend-worthy." That never seemed to work out well because either I would stalk a kid, and never actually meet her because we'd move before I said a word, or I would make a great friend, and move and then never talk to her again. So one day, I asked my mother how she had so many people to talk to on the phone when we moved. How did she make so amny friends that called her all the time? So she told me that in the adult-world, when you had a job, you got people called clients, and they always called because you eitherowed them something or they either owed you something. Truthfully it was probably a dumb way to explain it to a kid but my mom was never the smartest woman. So from then on I decided that instead of friends I was going to be a grown-up and have "clients." I would help people out but they would owe me one. That way when I moved from city to city I would accumulate favors everywhere I went, so that if one day I was in trouble, I could call the person up and they'd owe me one. Obviously, as I got older I realized my immaturity. If I was alone for a night, I couldn't call up a teenage kid and remind him of when I lent him my crayons in Kindergarten and expect to get shelter at his house for the night. But, the principle just stuck, so I don't make friends, I make favors. The bigger the people the better the favor. Like Nerkerman, she got me hooked up to the best college in the state, I'm getting out of here, and all I had to do was be a little preppy school-girl for seven hours a day. So I set up a tutoring policy. Whenever anyone in the school needs help in school-work, they go to Sara, she comes to me, instant favor points. I know all the tricks, all the back-doors, all the cheats. I am as they say "the perfect spy." So, that's really it." She then considered him for a minute. "I really don't know why I just told you that." She said "You better not tell a soul!" she punched Robin on the arm. He laughed but looked at her seriously.
"Your secret is safe with me, I won't tell anyone" he said it so solemnly that Terra let out a laugh.
"Don't make a big deal about it, I trust you." And she smiled back at him. They sat in silence for a few minutes but then he looked at her and said
"We've been in here for a bout an hour and Bruce is going to expect me to have learnt the entire language of French by now." Terra shook her head and smirked. She bent down to her schoolbag and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
"Usually, I actually tutor kids, like tell them the back ways of how to pass a subject. But you're different. I think I can trust you with this" she handed him the booklet. "it's my personal creation, yes you may bask in my glory. It is a list of every teacher and every way you could possibly suck-up to them. And anything that you shouldn't do is in there too. It then has the answer key to every test in the school being given this year. Being a tutor, I get access to this kind of stuff. So, just read it, memorize it, live by it, and you should do just fine as far as Bruce sees. But I'm going to have to be a bitch to you when we're in front of him, he kind of expects it. He's a bit of jerk isn't he?" she quirked her head to the side. Robin nodded and smirked. He was still digesting all of it, and it was a lot. She had just told him all about herself, and all he wanted was a simple explanation.
She was different, there was something simply amazing about her and Robin couldn't help but love her. She was so pretty and sincere and he felt his heart pounding in rage when she spoke about her father. He felt like he had a new cause to protect Gotham. It was almost as though she had reminded him of all the innocence in the world. All the people who got hurt by the bad guys. All the people he once swore he would protect. Somewhere along the way his vengeance for his parents left him and all he was left with was a vendetta against Bruce. Now he couldn't remember why. Why had he forgotten his cause, his reason, his fighting spirit? Why had he allowed himself to forget the innocent people who needed his protection? Why had he forgotten Robin's cause, and reminded himself only of Richard? With resolve he told himself that he wouldn't anymore. That was the reason he loved the mask of Robin. Behind it he was no longer Richard, prep school boy, or Richard, poor little orphan. He wasn't Richard, Bruce Wayne's ward. No he became Robin, defender of all that was right. All the poor people out there, all their hopes and dreams of a better life; that was what his mask was made of.
He stood up and turned to her. He held out his hand and she took it. She blushed as he pulled her up and handed her her schoolbag. They were inches from each other when he whispered to her.
"Here, and thank you, for everything." He would go no further than that. He had so much more to thank her for than for just the story and the 'tutoring.' She had given him his resolve back. He would never really forget that. He wouldn't advance on her, although he did want to, and she too. But, he couldn't; not yet. She was too much to him now for him to blow it all on hormonal urges. And all that would to was more trouble anyway. He was a new man.
He opened his door and she walked in front of him. He noticed the way she smelled of strawberries and mint. It was refreshing. They smiled at each other a lot as they walked down the corridor. He walked her down the stairs and to the door.
He held the handle, stared at her for a moment, and then opened the door. She turned and said "thank you Richard, your cooperation was incredible." He held the door at its edge and said "No, thank you, it was an eye-opener, I never knew history could be so fascinating." He put enough emotion into the sentence to make her understand he meant more than that. She waved coyly and walked away, leaving him breathless and at the same time, full of life. He closed the door, leaned against it and sighed, she had given him his choice back, his choice to serve and protect.
