As per his request, Barbara was still outside the office when he left fifteen minutes later.
"So how'd you like the principal?" she asked, as the two began to walk along the halls again.
He scrunched up his face. "I really couldn't tell you." he responded, before pausing. "He's... unlike any principal I'd ever imagined."
She scoffed. "Well you got that right, he's nothing like the last; it doesn't help that he kinda popped out of nowhere three months ago."
"Huh." Bruce murmured. "Very strange."
"Y'know there was a rumour going around that he's a vampire. That or he's on the run from the mafia and the cops gave him a whole new name and identity." she continued.
He raised an eyebrow. "Well those are certainly outlandish, though it would explain the strange name. I mean, Al Ghul quite literally translates to ghoul or demon. It's quite unfortunate if it's a birth name but more likely that it was chosen." he responded.
She shook her head and gave a chuckle. "Shit man this place attracts some weirdos."
Bruce hmphed and looked down at the piece of paper that the principal had given him. It was a timetable of sorts specific to him, detailing his lessons for the day; he guessed they were the same every day for the whole week, which would make things simple. It was Monday and so his first lesson appeared to be calculus.
"Do you have calculus first in the west wing?" he asked, tilting his head toward her as they walked aimlessly. The corridors were beginning to thin out, with students waiting outside their lockers or already at where they needed to be.
Barbara smirked at him and shook her head. "I'm a not a senior like you, I have first period in the computer labs. But I can take you to the west wing if you need?"
"Oh of course, sorry if it's an inconvenience..."
She scoffed and waved a hand. "I'd never thought I'd hear the day where a billionaire told me sorry."
He smiled a touch at this. "Well don't get too excited - I don't want the whole school knowing this early. You'll never be able to get to class."
"Well don't think it'll be that easy to hide. Just wait until calculus..."
Calculus was taught in the west wing, in a rather small and cosy class. The teacher, Mr Chase seemed like a decent guy to say the least, he was of average height, warm faced and had red hair that he combed over to mask his bald spots. In any other situation, or if he was any less famous he may have gotten along with this teacher, however for right now, Bruce hated the man.
"So I'd like to introduce the class to our new student, Bruce Wayne. Yes, that Bruce Wayne. But please don't treat him differently to any other student, I'm sure he won't want any swamping of attention." Mr Chase announced, his hands firmly holding Bruce's shoulders as he faced him to the class.
The class of senior students was small but their eyes burned into him, not one pair of them adoring or pleasant. Every face seemed to either want to rip him apart, or get out of here and tell their friends about how that other guy ripped him apart.
"Right-ee-o, Bruce," the teacher began again, giving him a firm pat on the back and pointing a finger to a spare seat in the back. "Why don't you go sit next to Edward, hmm?"
Bruce gave an understanding nod and moved through the aisle to the back of the room. He was fully conscious of how the eyes followed him back to his seat. The fore mentioned Edward was a lanky, weak looking boy, with short auburn coloured hair that flopped over his acne ridden face. A bright green over-shirt decorated with darker green question marks hung from his small frame; yet another student with a flare for the eccentric. Underneath this was a plain white T-shirt, and brown pants held up with a black belt, also question mark ridden.
He looked at Bruce with an odd stare beneath his rounded glasses, before twisting his head back to the front.
It wasn't a perfect interaction but the new boy decided things would run smoother if he initiated the friendly conversation.
He held out his hand.
"You're Edward, right? It's nice to meet you." Bruce spoke, despite the fact that the other boy didn't seem to be making any moves to take his hand.
In fact Edward looked physically repulsed by the action. "I was perfectly fine sitting on my own, I didn't need a brute to sit next to me." he muttered.
A brute? Rather strong considering we've only just been introduced, Bruce thought puzzled. I'm not even sat on the same desk as him, just nearby.
Bruce returned his hand to his side. "Sorry, I didn't ask to be sat here. Or to be in this class to be quite honest."
Edward scoffed. "Whatever. I suppose you'll detract the bullies from me."
The teacher turned his back on the class and immediately students sprung into action, twisting around at their desks and trying to get Bruce's attention. He kept a neutral face as his eyes flickered from one student to the next, their voices overlapping so that he could really catch what they were saying. It was strangely reminiscent of paparazzi he'd encountered in the past. As a billionaire one encountered a lot of paparazzi.
Nevertheless he heard Edward hmph beside him, and twisted his head to properly look at the smug look on his face. This look disappeared once Edward noticed that Bruce looking at him led the rest of the prying eyes to look at him. The boy raised his hands to shield his face from the gaze and slouched over his desk.
"Hey, come on, eyes forward." Mr Chase demanded, and despite Bruce's guesses the class actually turned to the front and away from Bruce.
They still continued to talk and be generally disruptive between themselves, even peeking looks at him every now and then, however the teacher seem used to it and was able to go on with his lesson. One girl took a photo of Bruce during it with her cellphone, before sending it to a friend.
After just short of an hour the bell chimed to signal the end of the lesson. Without the teacher's expressed permission students packed up their satchels and left, and Bruce followed suit; he moved with the crowd out of the room until he caught the figure of a familiar girl just a few people away from him. Selina was walking in the same direction down the hall and so he closed the distance between them and began walking beside her.
He wasn't quite sure why he did so. It was true that she was attractive, albeit part of his brain rationalised that he did this as he hoped to find a lead on the vandal and not because he wanted anything romantically.
She gave him a confused look. "Can I help you?" she asked, her tone light and not as buttery sweet as it had been before.
"Maybe you want to give me back my watch?" he asked, not letting his eyes leave her. He guessed she was the type to run. The watch wasn't an expensive one, leaving hardly a dent in his inheritance, however it was a starting point.
Her face faltered, making the lie that came after seem all the more obvious: "I don't know what you're talking about."
He hmphed. "I've been here for an hour and already I was warned that you were a thief. How about that for good introductions?" he responded jokingly.
She chewed her full bottom lip as she stopped to turn fully to him. "I have my reasons, don't take it personal." she muttered in return. "So you want your watch back?"
He caught the collection of jewellery and valuables in her purse and grimaced - this wasn't even for survival, this girl was a full blown burglar. Nevertheless he looked back up to her dark green eyes and shook his head. "No, you can keep it. I just want information."
"I told you it's person-"
"Not about your stealing. About another student."
Her face lit up in surprise. "Oh..." Folding her arms across her chest she raised an eyebrow at him. "That's a first."
"So you strike me as the type to know a lot of what goes on in the school." he began. "Have you heard anything about vandalism lately?"
She stared back at him with an amused look. "Christ they weren't wrong about Bruce Wayne being out of touch with the average person." she snickered, running a hand through her choppy black hair. "The school is full of vandals, handsome, even the building has been victim to it. You're gonna have to narrow it down."
He moved past her comment and continued. "It's clown based; is that any better?" he asked.
She tongued the inside of her cheek in thought, before cocking her head to the side. "That does seem strangely familiar, I think I overheard the Rogues talking about it." she replied finally.
"The Rogues?" he inquired, scrunching up his features in question.
She allowed a sigh to slip past her lips. "Sorry, boy, but unless you've got another Rolex coming then I have to get off to Spanish." she informed him.
With this she slipped past him and back into the crowd, and he didn't bother to follow her. Instead he hurried in the other direction and down the steps - second period was Journalism and from the looks of things, on the opposite side of the school.
Journalism had been a class that Bruce had requested before entering the school. It was a small class based around handling the school paper: The Arkham Herald, and he'd realised that students dedicated to putting together a piece of news about the school must know a lot about the goings on.
Entering the class he received the same bout of stares and murmurs between students. This time was slightly different to the last however as the teacher was a lot more relaxed, and so approached him with a calm smile.
"Bruce, yes?" she asked, giving him a pat on the arm. "Just ask the other students if you want to help."
He nodded with a smile in return and so she gestured an arm toward an empty seat at the table in the middle of the room. In this room there were tables lining the walls with computers, however there was also the table that he now sat at in the middle, which was attended by students with notepads. He pulled his own out to look akin to them.
Opposite him was a pretty girl with a bleached blonde bob and bangs, which were just shy of tickling her dark grey eyes. She noticed him sitting in the seat he was prescribed, and so gave him a welcoming smile.
"Bruce Wayne, just yesterday we did a piece on you and now here you are." she began, resting on her palms. "How exciting."
He knew the article she mentioned, he'd seen a photo online when searching for more information on Arkham. Unlike the serious structure it seemed to be trying to take as a paper, the article had been... subjective to say the least.
"I won't ask where you got your sources, but it was an interesting piece. Especially when it compared me coming here to rich white people taking pictures with starving children in Africa for good publicity." he responded with a smirk.
She gave him a smile of tad embarassment as she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Sorry, that was Ryder's touch. He doesn't care too well for rich people." she replied.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Ryder? Sounds like a guy I should have a drink with." he added, smiling as it received a giggle from the girl.
"Vicki, stop gossiping with that meathead." a male voice interjected, and Bruce twisted his head to see who.
The source was a slim pale boy, with thin black rimmed glasses and outgrown very dark brown hair. His features were hardened and unpleased as he turned around on his chair.
"Sorry who are-" Bruce began.
He was cut off by the man. "It's Jack. Jack Ryder. So stop bothering the lady." he retorted.
Bruce breathed air through clenched teeth and scratched the back of his neck. "Well nice to meet you Jack, Jack Ryder but the lady can tell me to shove off herself." he responded calmly yet dryly.
Jack's lip twitched.
Vicki caught this and drew Bruce's attention back to her without escalating the confrontation any further. "Oh if we're doing names then mine's Victoria Vale. Everyone calls me Vicki, though." she spoke lightly.
Bruce turned his body back to her and gave her a soft smile. "Double V, huh? Very interesting, Miss Vale." he added. There was a touch of flirt slipped into his words, though not purposefully. He just hadn't been around girls his age in far too long, and his charm seemed to proceed him.
————-
"Vicki Vale flirted with you?" Barbara asked, as she moved around the table to stand next to him.
They were gathered in the school library at lunch, which happened to be where the girl volunteered at. He had taken a spot in the corner which was away from other students so the two of them could properly talk, and they'd discussed his day so far. It had now reached his Journalism lesson.
"Well it wasn't necessarily flirting, just getting friendly." he responded, leaning back in his chair.
Barbara scoffed. "Sure. And then she'll poke your brain without you realising and sell the information to an actual paper. See how friendly she is once you're already on page three." she sighed, lifting books from the plastic crate she had rested on the table. She then slotted these into place in the book shelf, sorted alphabetically.
He exhaled loudly. "You do have a point, but don't think I'm trying to become her friend just for the fun. I thought the news team would know something of interest about what's going on." he rationalised.
She placed another book on the shelf and turned to him with a raised brow. "Huh, I never thought of it like that. Oh but Bruce please don't let them get on that you're investigating a crime, god knows the tabloids would love that." she murmured.
"Ah yeah: Bruce Wayne GCPD detective." he continued, tilting his head and looking up the the ceiling.
Barbara sighed and shook her head. "I wonder what my Dad would say if he knew what you were doing," she began. "Does he know?"
Bruce shook his head. "No this is something I'm doing on my own. But at least I have his daughter here to help me..."
She gave him a smirk. "Come on then, spit it out."
"I was talking to Selina earlier-"
She cut him off. "Selina, as in Selina Kyle who stole your watch?"
So her name is Selina Kyle, hmm... he thought.
"Yes, that Selina. I just thought if she's known to be a criminal at this school then she might know something about other criminals. Maybe they have a group where they discuss things."
Barbara hmphed. "Selina's a lone wolf, a lot of her fellow seniors really despise her and so I doubt they'd be in touch."
"Ah I thought that might be the case but they she said something about overhearing something about the Rogues talking about clown based vandalism."
This caused her to falter, and she chewed her lip. "I thought the Rogues might have had something to with it, but I didn't want you running into them headfirst without knowing for sure. They could make your life hell on Earth, Bruce, and not just in the stealing your lunch money kinda way."
Her words worried him however he did nothing but narrow his brow in confusion. "So who are the Rogues?"
She looked around to check nobody was nearby, before turning back to him once she was satisfied. "The Rogues are a group of troublemakers who make the rest of Arkham seem like church goers. I'm talking about real monsters here."
Bruce frowned. "So they're a group of students... are we talking criminal?"
She shrugged. "Not all of them, but even the non-offenders can be nasty pieces of work." She paused in handling the books and sat down next to him at the table. "They'll know what's going on with the vandalism."
"So who are we talking about here? Anyone I might have met already?"
She shook her head. "Probably not, I think you'd know if you bumped into one." At this she lowered her voice for secrecy, before continuing. "It started out as a cute little members only club in sophomore year, but over the years it's been collecting members and now there's six of them, all seniors."
Barbara then pulled a page of paper from her notepad and a pen from behind her ear. "I'll write down the names, look them up yourself, it'll take too long to warn you about them individually."
She paused in talking as she finished writing the names, and slid it over to him. "You'll have to befriend one of them to arrange a meeting with them."
He gave a nod, before looking down at the list. On it were six names, clearly written in Barbara's script:
- John Doe
- Harvey Dent
- Diego Bane
- Waylon Jones
- Harleen Quinzel
- Pamela Isley
He folded the paper and tucked it into a pocket for safety.
Hi there! Long time no see!
Sorry it's taken so long to get another chapter out, I've been busy with school, but I've been trying to write shorter stories to get me back into it :D
The next chapter shouldn't be too far off, especially not as long as my hiatus last time
~ rose