Robin is owned by DC of course. It was planned for just a one off story but as people seemed to like it I thought I would continue it. I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think?

Chapter Two - Robin's advice

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I had got myself some good lines and some great advice and was just talking to a good friend of mine Jake at the school canteen when something happened that made me spill my drink and nearly fall off my chair. Mathilda the wonderful incredible Mathilda sailed past me like an ancient galleon in full sail. Well to be honest there was an absence of water, sails and a ship but there was something about her that made me reach for a dictionary to find new words to describe her. I tried to stand up to talk to her but it felt like something had sucked my insides out and replaced my stomach with a bag of tap dancing beetles. I had faced some of Arkham's worse psycho's without flinching why can't I just talk to this one girl? I sat down again glumly. The prom is tomorrow. I have to talk to her today.

Jake spoke. "Have you asked Matilda out to the prom yet then?"

I threw him a glare. He knew I hadn't done yet. "No. Have you asked Bethany out then?" I countered. I sat back with rather a smug grin on my face.

His shifty look answered the question for me and he said. "I'll ask Mathilda out for you if you ask Bethany out for me?"

I gave him an appraising look. This would make my life a whole lot easier! "Okay then, I ask Bethany out for you and you ask Mathilda out for me."

He glared at me. "How do I know you won't ask her out for you?"

I smiled at him. "I don't even fancy her, I mean she is really..." Jake is glaring at me now! "She's lovely! A real picture!" I didn't want to carry on the conversation, since I thought her picture should be in the chamber of horrors. "I'll go and ask her out for you." I had a few lines I had written down on a piece of paper in front of me for when I eventually spoke to Mathilda. I looked down at the paper to give me some ideas.

I stood up steeling myself. I smiled as I thought this would get easier as I got older. I walked up to Bethany. She was talking to three of her friends at the moment. This is easy I thought. I don't even want to go out with her. Just say Hi, mention the weather being very weather like and say "My friend fancies you". What could be easier?

"Hi Bethany," I said. No reaction. Didn't hear. Still talking about stuff with her friends. I tried subtly to listen in. Ooh! They were talking about super heroes. I tried to edge closer. Robin! They are talking about Robin! What are they saying? Oh they've stopped talking.

"Hi Bethany," I squeak at them. They are holding a picture of Robin that some idiot has plastered onto a bird's nest. That sort of behaviour is really childish and oh it does look a bit like me?

"What do you want?" Said Bethany. Not the most welcoming start to the conversation.

My plan for talking about the weather took a sudden nosedive. Oh well I'd just mention the prom. Best get it out the way. "Bethany, are you taking anyone to the prom?"

She grabbed my arm. "I am now Timmy." She landed a kiss on my rather surprised looking face.

My arms were flailing out from side to side. When she eventually surfaced I said. "Not me, not here…"

I looked over at the other table to see Jake sitting staring at me with ill disguised hatred. "You don't understand you see…" I held the piece of paper out in front me, "you see…"

She grabbed the paper from my hand and started reading out loud. "To my darling. I love you more than my X-box." Well a brash statement but from the heart and as soon as I finish Halo 2 it will be true. "If you will just say yes to me we can pirouette beneath the stars at the school prom." She looked over at me. Her eyes glistening. She looked down again. "And play tonsil tennis till graduation."

"I don't know quite how to say this," I started. I had written that with Mathilda in mind. How to say this without getting hit?

She started sobbing. "That is probably the most beautiful thing anyone has ever written for me."

I winced. "It's not really written with you in mind…"

She looked over at me and smiled. "You wrote it from the heart! Oh Timmy! Oh Timmy!" She pushed the paper back into my hands.

I looked over to see Jake. He grabbed my rucksack and threw it at me in a fit of temper. I caught it. He spoke to Bethany. "Ignore this jerk it's me you want to go out with…"

That's a bit steep. "Just a minute Bethany."

She looked at Jake. "Ignore him my sweetness he is jealous." She turned back to me. "Listen my darling my Father will be dropping me at the prom. I'll meet you tomorrow night there. I will see you later my sweetness!" She said and walked off with her friends. I gave her a sickly smile and a little wave and then I grabbed Jake by the arm and pulled him to one side.

"I can explain…" I started.

"What the hell are you playing at!" He hissed.

"I'm asking her out for you!"

"You were kissing her!"

"She was kissing me!"

"You go right back there and tell her you were wrong."

I looked over at Bethany. She was looking at me with misty eyes. "I will! I'm thinking!" He pushed me over.

Right that's it! Friend or not if he pushed me I'd have to push him back! Not in a gay sense at all of course! "You've asked for it!" A girl is just walking past. I hand her the bit of paper I was holding. Didn't want to drop it in the scuffle.

"What's this?" She says.

"Just a bit of paper. Hold it while I hit Jake here please?"

I was just planning on giving him a dead leg when I heard a sobbing sound to my left. That girl I had handed the bit of paper too was crying? Great hope she wasn't going to use it as a tissue. "That is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever written to me…"

Oh no! What is it with girls? "Stop hitting him you beast!" She said to Jake and grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away.

"Oh Timmy! For how long have I watched you from afar!"

I was curious. "How long have you been watching me from afar?"

"Well about two minutes actually. It was such a romantic note! Of course I will go to the prom with you!"

Oh no! That note is dynamite! I'd better get out of here quickly.

"It's not really meant for…" She finished me speaking by planting her lips on my face.

"I will see you at the prom sugar!"

Jake walks over to me and jabs me in the chest with his finger. "Some friend you are! I'll get you at the prom!" He storms off before I have a chance to proclaim my innocence.

This day was getting worse and worse. I crumpled up the paper and threw it at the bin. Unfortunately Phil was just walking past and caught it. Oh no! Phil uncrumpled the paper and looked at it. He looked over at me. His eyebrows rising as quickly as the Empire State building Lift. "Why Timmy," he gave me a little smile. "I didn't know." He sashayed over to me. "You hide it so well." I gargled unable to speak. "I'll meet you at the prom and give your tonsils such a battering they'll think they've been in tennis world championships." He blew a kiss at me. I cowered in the corner by the drinks machine. "Till tomorrow night then stud. Ciao!" He thrust the paper back in my hand and only my lightening reflexes prevented a kiss.

I held the bit of paper like it was a bomb. There was Mathilda! Walking through the corridor like an angel through the pits of hell. Well like an attractive girl through the school corridor to be fair. There was something about her that bought out the metaphors in me! Right this was my chance.

"Mathilda I…" I started.

She put one finger over my lips and shushed me. "Tim why didn't you say…"

"Well I was planning on saying later…" I blushed.

"I saw the whole thing…"

I started getting furtive. "What?"

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Well you know…"

She started crying. Why do girls always cry round me? I surreptitiously smelt under my armpit. Nope, just the overwhelming aroma of deodorant. As every real man should smell like! "I think it is the most heart rending thing I have ever seen! If only I knew you were gay I would never have spent the past six months pining over you!"

Most people will tell you that it is impossible for a heart to simultaneously soar to the heavens and plunge to the darkest depths of hell in a second. Needless to say my heart did exactly that. "But… but…" I stammered. "I didn't…" She put her finger over my lips again. My lips were certainly getting a real battering today.

"You didn't want to break my heart," she gave me a soft smile. A tear glistening in one eye. "That is real sweet of you Timmy, but you can't deny your true feelings."

I could see a light! "My true feelings are on this bit of paper!" I said and handed it to her.

"'To my darling'," she read out.

I nodded my head eagerly.

"'I love you more than my X-box.'" You love me more than your X-box?" Her voice softens. She knows that comment came from the heart.

I nodded quickly. I just knew I should have written that proviso about finishing Quake 3 first.

"'If you will just say yes to me we can pirouette beneath the stars at the school prom.'"

I nod again enthusiastically.

"'And play tonsil tennis till graduation.'"

I add a thumbs up with the nodding this time.

"Are you gay then?"

I nod my head more from habit than anything. I give out a small squeal and start shaking my head.

"Oh Timmy! You have made my day! Not just my day my life! To walk in with you to the prom will be the happiest day of my life! Tim I will go to the prom with you! I will!"

"Wonderful!" I say. After today, what could possibly go wrong?

I give a sickly smile. The prom is going to be an interesting experience…